Daughter of the Wind
by Pegelia Von Borrador
Summary: 15 years after Miroku and Naraku vanish suddenly in the middle of the final fight, Sango and Miroku's daughter, cursed with the Kazaana, brings the whole Inuyasha group back together to break the curse and find the father she never knew. MxS,IxKag
1. Lost

Daughter of the Kazaana by Pegelia VonBorrador

Chapter 1 – Lost

**A/N Hey guys – I'm back on the fanfiction market! I got so many great reviews for Miracle I wanted to write this one. But – WARNING. If you're in the mood for a light, fluffy and happy fanfic, DON'T READ THIS. It's going to be a lot darker than Miracle was. It'll have a happy ending, but all the in-between's gonna be pretty dark, I imagine. But I can promise I'll be good, and I think I can update it at least once a week. Ok – I'm done talking. Onto the story - !**

"HIRAIKOTSU!"

The boomerang sliced through the air, missing Naraku's head by an inch. Sango gritted her teeth and raised her hand to catch it. She couldn't afford to be off, not when she was actually fighting the real Naraku instead of some damn _kugutsu – _puppet. He was really showing himself, he was really fighting them, and none of the Inu-tachi could afford to be careless.

"WIND SCAR!" Inuyasha was taking his turn now, and the howls and roars of his Wind Scar attack reverberated through the air. Sango shielded her eyes with her hand, but could still see Naraku dodge it easily – not before Inuyasha managed to shout, "Kagome!"

The reincarnated priestess took her turn from her vantage point high in the air on Kirara. "Hit the mark!" She shouted, and her purifying arrow rocketed down. It missed Naraku, but it wasn't supposed to hit him. His shouki – his evil demon spirit – was purified in an instant, and like actors on cue, the entire Inu-tachi leapt forward to get him while he was down. Shippou threw his fox-fire into Naraku's baboon face, Kagome fired another volley of arrows, and Inuyasha gave the Wind Scar another try. Through all the confusion and wind, Sango could still see the white baboon jump out of the way just in time. As she picked up Hiraikotsu for another try, she suddenly felt someone come up from behind her – Miroku.

"This is taking way too long." The houshi muttered. He'd been staying in the background for most of the fight because of the Saimyoushou flying around. Sango looked at him in surprise, but he wouldn't meet her gaze and said, "We're going to lose like this. He's just dodging us."

"Well, what else can we do?" Sango gasped. The wind was making her long brunette hair slap her face and dirt fly into her eyes. "We're doing the best we can."

"I'm not." Miroku muttered. His fingers tightened on the rosary beads around his wrist, and Sango realize what he wanted to do.

"You can't!" She shouted. All notions of the fight were blown out of her mind.

"I've got no other choice, Sango." He said quietly, and before she could do anything, he sprinted out to the middle of the field, where the battle was taking place.

"INUYASHA, KAGOME, SHIPPOU, MOVE!" He thundered.

"What!" Inuyasha barked, but Kirara swooped by and dragged him into the air by his kimono, and Sango could only watch in horror and amazement as Miroku pulled off the beads and held out his hand.

"WIND TUNNEL!"

Naraku definitely wasn't expecting it, that much was certain. The Kazaana was actually sucking him in. The Saimyoushou flew into his hand, but Miroku gritted his teeth and kept his hand up. Sango, standing with the others, suddenly felt hope blossom in her chest. Everybody was out of the way – maybe Miroku could actually suck Naraku in and be done with all their troubles. She was squeezing Kagome's hand tightly as Naraku, without even appearing to put up a fight, was drawn farther and farther into the path of the wind tunnel. The poison was obviously entering Miroku's system – he was starting to sway a little bit, and he looked much weaker, but he wasn't giving in.

Naraku finally came close – within reach of Miroku's hand – when Sango started to celebrate. The winds were too much for Naraku; he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it! Kagome had a huge smile plastered over her face, and Inuyasha, though it seemed he wanted to defeat Naraku himself, seemed at least content that Miroku was dealing with it. But just when it seemed Naraku would be defeated, just when it seemed he would finally die, he stuck out his hand and wrapped it around Miroku's throat.

Sango screamed.

Naraku wasn't going to be pulled in because he had a firm hold on Miroku. If Miroku kept going, at this rate, both of them would be sucked in. And if Miroku let him go, Naraku could kill him in an instant, he was so weak from the poison. Sango's stomach felt cold and hard, and she suddenly seized the Hiraikotsu and raced forward. There was no way in heaven or hell she was going to stand by any more – she would kill Naraku herself. She could vaguely hear Kagome and Shippou calling her name, but the adrenaline and fear was coursing through her blood now – she couldn't stop even if she wanted to.

They were still there – Naraku was tightening his grip around Miroku's neck, making him splutter and choke, and now half of his baboon suit was in the wind tunnel. Tears started to form in Sango's eyes as she sprinted, her legs pounding the ground, as she wondered if Miroku was actually going to die before she got close. She was wrong – it was much, much worse.

She'd gotten within range of the two struggling men, and she raised her boomerang above her head. She was just about to scream, "Hiraikotsu!" but what came out of her mouth wasn't a recognizable word. It was just one long scream. Miroku and Naraku were almost levitating above the ground, and rising higher and higher. Their bodies were faintly glowing, and dark clouds started to gather and rumble, as if it was a storm. Lightning cracked through the sky, and Sango's scream finally took the form of a word that she shrieked to the world –

"MIROKU!"

Their bodies glowed even harder, and finally Miroku managed to look down at her. Fear was in his soft violet eyes. Inuyasha, Kagome and Kirara were running up behind her, but Sango only had eyes for the houshi. Tears poured down her face as she stared up, helpless to do anything.

"_MIROKU!"_

They rose higher and higher, and the clouds rumbled and the lightning snapped. Miroku and Naraku were still struggling, and were almost at the height of the clouds. The lightning began to come closer to them, illuminating their bodies for seconds at a time, the wind still howling. Miroku was still looking down at her, his eyes huge, and one word floated back to her, broken by the wind –

"_San – go!"_

And then, in one swift second, the lightning came down upon their bodies, throwing light upon Miroku and Naraku, locked in a never-ending battle, until they vanished. The storm still rumbled and the lightning still cracked, and beneath them, the Inu-tachi stood, astounded. Sango's face was streaming with tears as she stared up at the sky, one arm raised, and one last scream came from her mouth.

"MIROKU – PLEASE COME BACK! _MIROKU!_"

And she collapsed on the ground, covering her face with her hands and feeling as if her whole world had just come crashing down on her.

* * *

Late that night, Kagome sat, stoking the fire with Shippou and Kirara by her side, when Inuyasha walked into the light of the campfire. She looked up hopefully, but the hanyou's eyes were averted. Kagome could almost see tears sparkling at their corners when he sat down.

"It's not good." He said softly. "I can't find his scent anywhere. It just vanishes on the plain. It's lost in the wind. I don't know how to tell Sango, but he's not in any of the surrounding forests either. Where is she, anyway, the stupid wench?" He said, reverting back to his old habits and peering around the campsite.

"She went off on her own." Kagome said, wiping her eyes. "I don't blame her, it's a lot to take in." Kirara and Shippou sat on her lap, and Shippou looked up with wet eyes and whispered, "Are we gonna see Miroku again, Kagome?"

Kagome wanted to say, "Of course!" but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Her throat hadn't been dry since Miroku vanished. "Shippou…I don't know." She managed. "We're going to keep looking."

Shippou wiped his tiny eyes dry and snuggled deep into Kirara's fur, but suddenly he felt Inuyasha's hand pull him out. Kagome was astonished – Inuyasha looked almost fatherly as he put Shippou on his shoulder and – was that a smile?

"Come on, runt," He said, "let's go look one more time. Maybe we'll find him, and you want to be the one to give Sango the good news, right?"

Shippou nodded, and Kagome grinned as they walked out of the campsite. She'd never seen Inuyasha be so nice to Shippou – usually it was Miroku who was his father figure. But as soon as she thought it, she blinked the tears back, petted Kirara absentmindedly and stoked the fire a little more. And then a figure came into the light – it was Sango. Her hair was mussed and her eyes were bloodshot. She hadn't stopped crying since Miroku vanished, but this was something different. Her body slumped and when she reached Kagome, she fairly collapsed.

"Sango, what's the matter?" Kagome whispered, pulling her friend close. Sango was trembling, and she muttered something inconceivable. When Kagome put her face next to Sango, her lip was quivering, and tears were pouring out of her closed eyes.

"You have to tell me, Sango, what's wrong?"

"Kagome…" She whispered, "I'm pregnant."

Kagome's whole body went numb. Her mouth dropped open and she went limp. Even Kirara sat up in her lap. The sheer improbability of it astounded her – today, of all days!

"Are…you serious?" She stammered. She felt Sango nod against her breast. And then it hit her – today, of all days. The reason why Sango was crying.

"Is the baby…Miroku's?" She almost hoped it wasn't. Even if Sango had an affair with another man, it was better than dealing with the pain of bearing Miroku's child. But there was no such luck today. Sango nodded again and her body started shuddering as she gasped and sobbed. Kagome pulled her close and the two girls cried together, both of their hands on Sango's stomach. Inuyasha and Shippou walked cautiously into the clearing, and Inuyasha guessed in a second what had happened. His eyes widened, his mouth dropped, and he seized Shippou by the tail and raced out of the clearing again. When their cries stopped, Kagome sat up and dried Sango's tears with the edge of her sleeve.

"Sango, are you really going to raise this child?" She finally asked.

Again, Sango nodded. "It was…the only thing he ever wanted. A child." She said, her voice choked.

"No, you've got to be kidding me!" Kagome said. "Sango, you're only sixteen, and you've been a Taijiya your whole life! You don't know a thing about raising a child! And alone, no less, without Miroku! You can't seriously want to raise this baby by yourself!"

"I don't have a choice." She whispered miserably. "I can't give up the baby."

"But you'd give up being a Taijiya to raise the child?" Kagome whispered slowly. "You love the heat of battle, and you love being a Taijiya and a fighter! It's all you've ever known! You're really going to give it up, when you're not even in the prime of your life? You love being a Taijiya."

Sango looked down at her stomach, and her shoulders started shaking. Kagome leaned close to hear her whisper, "But I loved Miroku more."

Kagome's mouth opened, as if she was about to say something, but she finally sighed and said, "Then I'll help you any way I can. You're not completely alone yet."

Sango looked up at her, gratitude in her brown eyes, and mouthed "Thank you" before falling back against her sleeping bag. Kirara cuddled up close to her, and fell asleep curled against her mistress' stomach. Kagome watched the scene and thought sadly that that stomach would soon be swollen, and there was no way Sango was ready for it.

**Okay, so, what'd ya think? Next chapter – the baby's born. I think this one's going to be very long, drawn-out and emotional – I like that kind of crap. I hope you all liked it, and now review!**


	2. Kaza

Chapter 2 – Kaza

**Okay, so I am going to say that I thought about rating this story M, just because of this chapter, because it deals with live childbirth. Not that I would know what actually happens when you give birth, but I've read enough books to get the basic idea. So, at any rate, I'll try not to make this too gory. I hope. Okay, moving on…**

The screams began in the dead of night. The villagers gave each other disdainful looks and only pulled their doors shut and their blinds down. Whatever was happening with that strange group, they didn't want to know. They'd walked into the village early in the day – probably the weirdest group they'd ever seen. There was a hanyou with silver hair and dog ears, who was walking at the front with a tiny kitsune on his shoulder. One huge cat demon was behind him, with two flickering tails and huge fangs, but she looked almost gentle. A girl was walking alongside her with thick black hair and a queer kimono, and the whole group seemed to be supporting the only normal one there – a peasant girl with wide eyes and a swollen stomach, who was obviously in her ninth month and ready to give birth.

The hanyou had threatened to butcher them all if they didn't give them a hut to stay the night in, but the other girl had said some strange spell that threw him to the ground, and then asked politely if they could have a hut so the girl could give birth. Most of the villagers were simply standing and staring – this whole group seemed so young! The pregnant girl seemed barely in her teens, and she obviously wasn't ready for a baby. All the same, they gave them a hut on the outskirts of town and left them to their own devices.

When the screams started, they knew what had happened – the girl was in her first labor pains. Most of them sighed and rolled their eyes, almost hoping that something would go wrong. But they had no idea what was coming.

* * *

Inuyasha had seen demons with their eyes clawed out, their stomachs eaten through, devoured by bees, arms cut off, poisoned until they died, and ultimately put through every conceivable torture anyone could think up. But that almost seemed like nothing compared to childbirth.

"Come on, Sango, stay with me!" Kagome shouted desperately. Sango was screaming, tears pouring down her face. She seemed incapable of hearing anything. Kagome wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at Inuyasha for help.

Inuyasha groaned. There was a reason why it was considered a sacred sin for men to enter the birthing room, he'd figured out. Kagome had told them to come in when Sango went into labor, just because Inuyasha and Shippou had done more than enough for her for nine months. The group had walked all over Japan, searching for Miroku, as Sango's stomach just got bigger and bigger. If pregnant women were supposed to stay home and do needlepoint, obviously no one had told Sango. She had her Taijiya catsuit altered as her stomach got bigger and fought with Hiraikotsu till her seventh month, when Inuyasha and Kagome expressly forbid her from fighting. But they couldn't find Miroku anywhere, and it was finally time to grit their teeth and bear the child.

Inuyasha was sitting with Sango's head in his lap, and he was feeling very guilty. This was where Miroku was supposed to be, he knew. This was the place for the father of the baby. But he had to do it – there was no one else, and Sango needed everyone she could get. Shippou was running back and forth, mopping the sweat from her brow and trickling water down her throat, and Kirara was sitting by Sango's cheek, purring and offering emotional support. Kagome, as the resident priestess, was in charge of birthing the child, and she didn't look happy at all. She was almost as sweaty and tired as Sango was, sitting between her legs, her hands covered in blood, but there was still no child.

She gave him a pained look that said, _Do something!_ Inuyasha raised his eyebrows and mouthed, _I'm not Miroku, what the hell can I do!_ Kagome sighed, and then suddenly it became apparently obvious what would make Sango feel better, because she started screaming it at the top of her lungs.

"MIROKU! MIROKU!" She clamped her legs shut and turned over on her side, her body scrunched up tightly. "I'M BEARING HIS CHILD, BUT WHERE IS HE! MIROKU!"

Kagome drew back in surprise, and looked at Inuyasha and Shippou in horror. It was very, very obvious what was going on – Sango was NOT supposed to do this, she was supposed to open her legs and let the baby out. Kagome looked at Inuyasha desperately, and finally, Inuyasha decided he couldn't be Miroku – but he sure as hell could try.

He leaned down, grabbed Sango's face and turned it towards him. She opened her bloodshot, teary eyes and took in his face, and Inuyasha barked,

"Come on, Sango, you are not going to go down like this! What happened to the Taijiya who's sent any youkai that came at her to hell? After those nine months of freakin' hell, don't you want this baby?"

Tears started to come out of her eyes again and she started to turn away, and then Inuyasha got it. What Kagome was trying to tell her – the reason Sango still hadn't borne this child.

"Don't you know how much _Miroku _wanted this baby?" He said. Now she was looking at him with some signs of recognition. Kagome sent him a grateful glance and jumped in –

"It was the only thing he ever wanted! He asked every woman he saw to bear his child, now you've got to be the one to do it!"

"Yeah, Sango, do it for Miroku." Shippou added, mopping off her face. Sango slowly lay back out and opened her legs. With no words spoken, they took up their positions – Inuyasha put Sango's head in his lap, Shippou and Kirara held her hands, and Kagome kneeled between her legs. Everything was ready.

"Now, Sango –" Kagome whispered, "Push."

It was one hellish half hour while they brought the baby into the world. Sango screamed bloody murder, her body bathed in sweat. She squeezed Shippou's little hands so hard his eyes bulged out of his head. Even Inuyasha had to turn away from all the blood that was splattered all over Kagome and the floor. Kagome was sweating, too, but she hadn't moved from her spot one inch. The whole room was focused so intently they almost didn't hear Kagome say – "I SEE THE HEAD!"

Sango heard, at least. She squeezed her eyes shut and went all out. Her breathing between the screams was coming in short and painful gasps. Her whole body shook. But as Inuyasha watched, she gave one last scream, and suddenly her whole body went limp – and a huge smile lit up Kagome's face as she held in her hands something bright red, slimy and screaming at the top of its lungs. Sango's eyes went huge as she looked up and saw her child, and Shippou almost started cheering when the group's worst fear suddenly came true.

The baby raised its right hand – and suddenly swirling vortexes of wind filled the room.

"KAGOME – THE KAZAANA!" Inuyasha yelled, grabbing Sango and Shippou by the back of their robes and dragging them to the corner of the room. Kirara transformed into her firecat form and seized Kagome by the back of her shirt. Kagome directed the baby's wind tunnel at the roof of the building, away from them all.

"It's not as strong as Miroku's was!" She yelled above the winds. Sango was fully conscious now, and fully realized what was going on. Inuyasha still holding the neck of her yukata, she pointed at the dresser and shrieked, "KAGOME, THE ROSARY!"

There was a rosary, identical to the one Miroku had worn, sitting on the dresser. Kagome reached out and found the slippery beads. She'd seen Miroku do it enough times to know what to do – sheswiftly wrapped the beads around the child's wrist, and the winds finally stopped.

Inuyasha and Shippou leaned back against the side of the hut, breathing deeply. Kirara walked over and supported Sango, who was trying to sit up. Pretty soon, Kagome brought the child back, washed and wrapped in a clean sheet, and gave it to Sango. Her eyes were tired, her hair was a mess and her hands were covered in blood, but she managed to smile gently and say, "Sango, it's a girl."

"A girl?" She whispered, bringing the baby close to her. Her eyes were shining, and it wasn't with tears now. She laughed quietly and said, "Inuyasha, Shippou, look – she has Miroku's eyes."

Inuyasha almost couldn't believe it – a tiny, wriggling, pink baby could make those whole nine months of hell worth it. Sango didn't seem to have a care in the world as she held the baby to her chest, and Inuyasha and Shippou looked down in awe. The baby wasn't crying anymore, and it was true – she had Miroku's blue-violet eyes.

"What's her name?" Shippou asked, wiggling his fingers in front of the baby and making her smile.

"Kaza." Sango whispered. The whole group stared at her.

"Kaza?" Kagome asked. "Are you sure?" Sango only nodded.

"Yo, Sango, she's got the Kazaana, and you know what that means." Inuyasha growled. "That means Naraku's still alive somewhere, and if he's still alive, that means Miroku probably is too."

"You really think so?" Sango asked hopefully. "Miroku's still alive?"

"Probably." He snorted. "And that baka houshi better be happy, wherever he is, cause that freaking baby was hell on all of us."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome said. "Sit!" He slammed to the ground, and Sango laughed and rocked the baby.

"Thank you all so much." She whispered. "Kaza wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

Inuyasha scoffed at the emotional overload, but Kirara purred, Shippou blushed, and Kagome patted Sango's hand and said, "It was nothing. Tomorrow, we're going to find a village to settle down in and raise your baby."

Sango didn't reply – she'd already fallen asleep, and Kagome sighed and took the baby.

"Kaza, eh?" She muttered. Inuyasha walked over and looked at the baby. "She knows what that means, right? It's disturbingly ironic."

Inuyasha shrugged. "She is her father's daughter."

**

* * *

Crappy ending, I know, but I'm freaking exhausted. Childbirth scenes are fun to write, but I'm like, dead. So, at any rate, tell me if you liked it! I tried to make all the characters act as they usually would. Arigatou!**


	3. Breaking Free

Chapter 3 – Breaking Free

**I am SOO sorry for not updating! I went to Pennsylvania, and my grandma's only got dial-up internet, so there was no way I could post! But I did write four chapters, so here it is! We're skipping ahead fifteen years, and this is from Kaza's point of view.**

"KAAA-ZAAAH!"

I snapped around. That was my mother, no doubt about it.

_Damn it, _I thought, _she found me again._

I quickly wrapped the beads around my right hand, and instantly the swirling winds stopped. I looked around and saw the damage my wind tunnel had wrought. Yep, the abandoned farmhouse had been completely sucked in. I couldn't help but smile – I was slowly learning to master this accursed hand, even though I'd been expressly forbidden to open it by none other than –

"Kaza."

My mother, Sango.

She'd found me.

She walked up the field where I was standing. I could tell she'd been doing laundry – the sleeves of her yukata were pulled up, and her long, brunette hair was pulled back by a kerchief. Her face was red, and as she reached me and placed her hands on her ample hips, I knew I was in for it.

"You think you can hide from me, Kaza?" She grinned. I winced. The last thing I wanted was to get my mother into Taijiya mode. Even though she hadn't killed a youkai in years, apparently in her day, she'd been the best youkai Taijiya in all of Japan. She was one person you did NOT want to piss off.

"You've been eyeing this farm for weeks, you think I wouldn't notice? I'm your mother, I know how you think. Every opportunity you get, you want to open up the Kazaana. Get over here!" She beckoned me to her, and I grudgingly followed as she continued to talk.

"I'm just worried, Kaza. You know it grows bigger every year, we don't want to speed up the process by opening it more than necessary."

"I'm sure my father opened the Kazaana to practice." I grumbled.

She stopped short, and her brown eyes glazed over. I felt guilty instantly. My mother was more of a 'just-do-it' person – emotions didn't bog her down. But talking about my father – the monk Miroku, who'd vanished fifteen years ago – was the one thing that could make her tear up.

"Your father was raised at a monastery, where they taught him spells to learn to control it. Also, he fought youkai on a daily basis – there was a need for him to learn to defend himself. It's just different with you, alright, baby? Leave it as it is." She hurried up the path to our small hut and ran inside.

I sighed and sat down on the grass. A few minutes later, I heard a mew – Kirara, my mother's faithful cat demon, was sitting beside me.

I smiled and rubbed behind her ears – she loved it. "I know I shouldn't bring up my father, Kirara, but she's so controlling! The Kazaana doesn't have to be a curse, I know it doesn't! I wish my father were here – he could tell me what to do." I said softly. Kirara only purred comfortingly.

* * *

Sango sighed and sat down by the fire, absentmindedly stirring the soup. It wasn't really the fact that she was opening the Kazaana that bothered Sango – it was how Kaza acted so similar to Miroku. He did that, too, she remembered – open the Kazaana to keep in practice. And the way she scratched Kirara, too – that was definitely from Miroku. She had his eyes, too, that brought Sango painful memories when she looked at her daughter. But Kaza was a rebel, too, never listening to what anyone told her. Sango smiled and that,

_That was exactly how I acted when I was her age._

She remembered Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippou, too – how they'd traveled all over Japan looking for jewel shards. She'd lived with them for a year after Kaza was born, and she could still remember the day she left….

_Flashback _

_Sango straightened up and hefted the small bag with her belongings over her shoulder. Kagome's eyes were sad as she handed Sango some food for the road._

_"You know, Sango, you don't have to go. You can still live with Inuyasha and I."_

_"It's not that I want to leave, Kagome." Sango said with a sad smile. "But I think I need to raise Kaza on my own. I know we're just a burden to you. And I can't be a Taijiya anymore; I have to be a mother. It's just the best thing for all of us."_

_Kagome opened her mouth to protest, but a clawed hand was put on her shoulder. Inuyasha had appeared behind her, with Shippou on his shoulder. "Kagome, let her do what she wants."_

_Kagome just sighed and bounded Kaza on her hip. In a year living with her, Kagome had become like a second mother to Kaza, taking care of her when Sango was tired and always being an emotional support. Now she lifted the baby up and kissed her. She stroked her soft brown hair, then turned to Inuyasha and Shippou and said, "We're not going to see Kaza again, so say goodbye."_

_Inuyasha scoffed, but all the same, he wiggled his fingers in front of her face and made her laugh. "Bye, runt." He grunted, ruffling her hair._

_Shippou was much less subtle. "Sangooooo, I'm going to miss you SOOOOOO MUCH!" He cried, launching himself at her. Sango sighed and hugged him, patting his fluff of a tail._

_"It's not like I'm never gonna see you again! And I don't think I'll be settling too far away, we'll see each other again."_

_Shippou gave Kaza one last kiss and handed her to Sango. She made her quick last hugs to everybody, called Kirara to her, and set off. Looking back, she could see Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippou waving at her, Kagome wiping tears from her eyes. Kaza looked back, and her blue-violet eyes began to cry as she realized she was going away. Sango shushed her and wiped tears from her own eyes, wondering if and when she was ever going to see her best friends again._

_End Flashback_

Fourteen years.

The pot began to boil over, and Sango felt tears stain the corners of her eyes. She couldn't help but feel that she'd lied to Shippou – she hadn't set foot in that village, hadn't seen anyone from the old Inu-tachi since the day she'd left that village, fourteen years ago.

She'd taken Kaza, Hiraikotsu, a small bag of belongings, and Kirara and had set off on her own. In reality, the reason she left was that she couldn't handle the memories. Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippou – they all brought back visions of a time long gone. Every time she looked into her daughter's eyes, she saw Miroku, the day he disappeared into the sky. It certainly hadn't been an easy 15 years – she'd had to make a meager living fighting youkai like before, while Kirara would take Kaza to the battlefield and protected her. So Kaza had grown up an excellent Taijiya and was even able to earn an income years later – but like Sango, she'd grown up alone in the world, all because of the Kazaana. Sango, Kirara and Kaza had lived together in the same little hut for years, and Sango had only survived by clinging to her daughter, the faded vision of the man she still loved, and the hope that because the Kazaana still existed, he still survived too, and one day, she could see him again.

**

* * *

Sorry if the chapters are a little boring right now – I'm big on drama and emotional scenes. Anyway, at its heart, this is a SangoxMiroku fanfic, so you'll probably see more of this – and definitely fluff – in later chapters. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and please review! Arigatou!**


	4. A Mother's Love

Chapter 4 – A Mother's Love

**And so we continue…Kaza's POV…**

Kirara didn't say anything as I sat there, stroking her. Without even thinking, I slowly raised my right hand to my face. I could feel the pull of wind – muted and faint, but still there – emanating from my palm. It occurred to me that if I wanted to, I could suck up Kirara, my mother, this hut, this village. My mother's words were festering in my mind as I thought about the Kazaana. Over the years of being cursed I'd become numb to the thought that one day I, too, would be sucked into the void. My mother had always said that there was probably nothing I could do – Naraku and my father were gone, and there would be no finding them now. But as I just kept looking at the Kazaana, I finally realized it was a weapon. A weapon I could use to find Naraku and break the curse.

A weapon I could use to find my father.

Something snapped in my subconscious. I leapt off my feet, startling Kirara, and raced up the slope to my hut. Banging the door open, I found my mother sitting by the fireplace, making soup. Her eyes were sparkling with what looked like tears, but I didn't exactly care.

"Mama," I yelled, "I'm going to find my father!"

I braced myself for the yells and arguments that would follow, ready to stand my ground. My mother was NOT going to control me! But instead of screaming, my mother's eyes flashed. The tears vanished in an instant. There was something on my mother's face I hadn't ever seen –

The glint of the old Taijiya.

"Well, Kaza," she said, standing up and walking over to the little chest where I knew contained her most valuable possessions, "if you're going to find Miroku, you're going to need this."

She flicked the chest open and pulled out what I knew to be –

"A Taijiya suit." I whispered. Her brown eyes were shining as she placed it in my hands.

"That's black calfskin leather you're feeling – it's old, but it's still good." She rummaged around a bit and pulled out what looked like bright pink armor. "And this armor is made from the scales of a rare dragon youkai, harder than any metal. Take off your yukata, I'll show you how to put it on."

I was trembling as I quickly stripped. Though for years my mother had considered me a Taijiya, I'd never worn a real Taijiya battle suit. She showed me how to bind my chest with strips of cloth, ease on the form-fitting leather, tie all the intricate armor on, even put my long, brown hair into a high ponytail. When I was done, she stepped back, put her hands on her hips, and smiled.

"I thought it'd fit. I have two suits, Kaza – this one, and another one I had made when I was pregnant with you. You're the same size I was when I was your age, so I figured it'd fit you. Now – take it off." She pulled a large blue shawl from the chest, put some bread, cheese and fruit in it, and showed me how to stow my armor and wear it around my waist.

"Alright, only two more things." She said, going back into the chest. "I can't give you Hiraikotsu – you never really liked fighting with it anyway. But I can give you this – "

And she pulled out a sword – a katana, still in its black sheath. I'd been speechless this whole time, but when she handed me the sword, I stammered,

"Mama, no, your katana! I can't!"

"You're a much better swordsman than I ever was, so take it – I can tell you'll use it." She smiled, the little wrinkles around her eyes and mouth creasing up.

"Kirara!" She called, and the cat demon scampered into the room and into my mother's arms. She stroked her and said, "Go with Kaza, Kirara."

"No way, Mama!" I gasped. "Who'll stay with you? You've had Kirara for years!"

"It's ok, I'll take care of myself." She said. "Kirara will keep you safe. She's saved me from demons for as long as I can remember, and she'll do the same for you. Now listen to me – " she knelt down till we were eye to eye. "I've given you everything you need. Follow your instinct – follow the wind, and that's where you'll find Miroku. But promise me this. There's a village a couple miles up north. Kirara knows it. Go there first, and wear your Taijiya suit, even though I told you not to. You'll be greeted by a black-haired priestess. Ask if you can spend the night, and whatever she asks, tell her – your name, where you're from, where you're going, who I am, anything she asks, tell her. Can you do that?"

I nodded, my throat choked, and then hugged her. I whispered, "I'll find my father, I know I will. And I'll come back here, Mama."

"Kaza," she whispered, stroking my hair, "it's not like I'm never going to see you again. You'll succeed, I know you will. Just stay safe, trust the wind, and promise me you'll go to that village."

I nodded, kissed her, and walked out the door, trying so hard not to cry. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sango beckon to Kirara and whisper something in her ear. But pretty soon, the cat demon was on my shoulder, and I turned around and say my mother waving at me. I waved back, blinked back the tears, and set off down the road.

_Kaza, my baby, _Sango thought, watching her only child walk into the sun, _this time I wasn't lying. _A smile crossed her lips. _I will see you again. Very soon._

**

* * *

Well, sorry for the boringness of this chapter, but I really wanted to focus on how Sango was kind of passing on her legacy. It finally gets exciting in the next chapter – can u guess who the black-haired priestess is? Ooooh, this is gonna be fun…please review!**


	5. The Priestess and the Hanyou

Chapter 5 – The Priestess and the Hanyou

**This is gonna be good…**

I spent my first night outside underneath a tree. I could see why nobody went on cross-country trips anymore – sleeping outside is hell unless you have a cat demon. Kirara transformed and I snuggled deep into her fur to keep me warm.

The next morning, she seemed to be tingling with anticipation, so I thought that the village must be close. I hadn't really been homesick for my mother – I'd only been gone one night – but as I put on the Taijiya suit, I almost wished she was there with me. Kirara purred and rubbed my leg as I put my hair into a high ponytail, and I scratched her ears as we set off.

People stared at us as we walked into town – I guess a real Taijiya is hard to find nowadays. But almost as soon as we entered the village, a priestess with bushy black hair walked out of her hut, carrying a basket of vegetables. She was wearing the traditional white haori and red hakamas of a priestess, her thick black hair was pulled back with a white ribbon, and she had cocoa-brown eyes that looked disturbingly familiar. Kirara mewed, and she looked up. Her eyes widened as she saw us, and it almost looked like she was going to drop the vegetables.

But then she regained her composure, waved and called, "Hello! Are you from around these parts?"

"I'm from a village just south of here." I called, walking up. "Do you have a bed where I could spend the night?"

"Of course, come in." She ushered me in, and in doing so, saw Kirara on my shoulder. Kirara mewed once, and her mouth gaped open for a second.

"Well, it's just me and my husband here, so we have an extra bed in the corner." She finally said. "Actually…speaking of him…" She walked to the far side of the hut, stuck her head out, and shrieked, "INUYASHA!"

No sooner had she called him than suddenly a hanyou appeared – he, too, looked disturbingly familiar. He had golden amber eyes, silver hair, and dog ears on top of his head. He was wearing the same outfit as her, except with a red haori. He sniffed me like a dog, straightened up and scoffed.

"How stupid are you, wench? Can't you smell, or at least see? That's Kaza. The Taijiya outfit should have been enough for you." He took another look at me then said, softer, "She does have Miroku's eyes."

"Wait." The priestess said, narrowing her eyes. "There's one way to know." She came up to me and said, "Show me your right hand."

I did as I was told, and she gasped and whispered, "Yeah, that's Kaza."

Then I finally burst, "Who are you, and how do you know me? Did you know my parents?"

The hanyou snorted, "Stupid girl." But priestess silenced him and said, "My name is Kagome, and this is Inuyasha. We traveled with your mother and father – Sango and Miroku – when we looked for the shards of the Shikon jewel."

Finally, Kirara couldn't contain herself and dashed towards Kagome. She laughed, picked her up and cooed, "I thought that was you, Kirara! Oh, I've missed you!"

"Kirara?" Inuyasha said, squinting and leaning down. "Baka neko. Where the hell's Sango? This is the first time I've ever seen one of you without the other."

"First tell me how you know me, and then I'll tell you where my mother is and why I'm here."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, but Kagome said kindly, "Because, Kaza, we were there when you were born. I was the priestess that delivered you. I sealed up the wind tunnel in your hand the first day it opened. You and your mother also lived with us for a year before she took you and Kirara and left, and I haven't seen any of you since."

"We live in a village not too far south from here." I started to explain. "That's where my mama is. She didn't want to come with me, so she gave me Kirara and told me to come here before anywhere else."

"And where, exactly, are you trying to go?" Inuyasha asked.

"To find my father."

Inuyasha and Kagome shared a look. "Miroku?" Inuyasha asked.

"Kaza…" Kagome said. "During the nine months Sango was pregnant with you, we looked all over Japan for Miroku. We couldn't find a trace of him or Naraku. So what makes you think you can find him now, after fifteen years?"

"Cause I've got this." I raised my right hand, curled into a fist. "I'm his daughter. At the very least, I've got this Kazaana for a reason. To remind me of my mission to kill Naraku, which still hasn't been fulfilled. So my mind is made up."

"Where do you want to start looking for him?" Kagome asked.

I closed my eyes and remembered what my mom had said. 'Follow the wind…that's where you'll find Miroku.' My Kazaana started to pull at the cloth and beads that held it, and I knew where to go.

"The field where he disappeared." I said confidently. Kagome and Inuyasha shared a look again, and Inuyasha said, "But that's halfway across Japan."

"I know."

I expected them to argue, but instead Kagome broke out in a wild grin and said, "Do you hear her, Inuyasha? She sounds so much Sango, I feel like Sango's sitting right in front of me!"

Inuyasha nodded and for the first time, I saw him smile.

Kagome turned to me, still grinning, and said, "Alright, Kaza – we're in. We're going too."

"Wait, what?" Definitely didn't see that coming.

"Sango's not stupid." Inuyasha snorted. "Why do you think she consented with letting you go halfway across Japan if only you'd promise you'd come here first? She knew we'd go with you."

"And it's not like we've forgotten Miroku, either." Kagome said. "I've always wanted to find him, but never really had the motivation."

"So…you're coming with me?" My mom had always told me about Inuyasha and Kagome, but I never imaged I'd meet them, much less travel with the legendary priestess and hanyou that hunted for the Shikon shards. It almost seemed like a dream. Kagome and Inuyasha must've been my father's best friends – if anybody could find him, they could.

"Yes, dear," Kagome nodded. "Why don't you get some rest, I'll start packing." In the background, Inuyasha, with Kirara on his shoulder, was rummaging around, yelling, "You filthy wench, Kagome, where the hell's my Tetsusaiga? I had it yesterday!"

"The same place as my bow and arrows, could you get them?" She yelled back. I raised my eyebrows.

"_You_ married _him_?"

She only winked at me and proceeded to pull a large yellow backpack out of a chest. I sat, stunned and thought to myself,

_Well, so much for my boring life._

* * *

**Okay, I know by now you've probably got a lot of questions - why did Kagome marry Inuyasha, what happened to Kikyo, why is she a priestess now - but those'll all be answered later. So no flames, cause I will tell you what's going on. Ok, hope you liked it, now please review!**


	6. Baka Kitsune!

Chapter 6 – Baka Kitsune! 

**I would like to make it perfectly clear that I HATE SHIPPOU. I know some people like him – and I respect that. So you guys can respect that I think he is a stupid little kid who can't fight and has no point. However, I wanted to get the WHOLE Inu-tachi back together…that means Shippou's coming back, too. So if those of you Shippou fans want to flame me because he seems a little, well, retarded in this chapter, I just wanted to say that I think he's retarded, and he's only in this story because he has to. So no flames. Onto the story! Oh, by the way, I don't own Inuyasha.**

It was obvious that Kagome and Inuyasha had done this before. When I woke up, Kagome had unearthed some strange metal contraption that she called a 'bike' and had packed food and supplies in the bright yellow sack. Inuyasha had a sword resting on his hip and Kirara on his shoulder and was already waiting for us outside. When I came out, yawning, still in my Taijiya suit from the day before, he glared at me and said,

"You're not planning to wear that walking, are you? Didn't Sango teach you anything?"

"Oh shut up." I snapped. "I just forgot to take it off, is all."

He snorted at me, and I rolled my eyes and went inside, where Kagome was rolling out the bike.

"What the hell's his problem?" I said. Kagome looked at him and said calmly, "Sit boy."

He slammed to the floor and Kirara leapt off. I burst out laughing. Kagome said with a smug smile, "I never bothered to take those beads off. It makes the whole marriage so much easier."

Inuyasha got to his feet, muttering faint cuss, and said, "Let's get going already…goddamn bitches…"

"Inuyasha…" Kagome growled warningly. He glared at her, and we finally set off.

We mainly walked in silence, each of us with our own thoughts. I watched Kagome and Inuyasha up ahead and thought that my mother was definitely smart. She'd known these two well enough to trust that they'd go with me and keep me safe. _She really does love me, _I thought.

Then my mushy thoughts were interrupted by a massive bear demon that stepped right in front of us and roared.

I did the only thing a novice Taijiya could do – I screamed.

I was the only one, though. Kirara transformed in a burst of flame and stepped in front of me, growling at the bear. Kagome leapt off her bike and nocked an arrow. Inuyasha drew out his sword and I gasped as it transformed into a gleaming dog's fang.

"So," he yelled to Kagome, "You still remember how to shoot an arrow?"

"Do you still remember how to use that sword?" She shouted back.

"We'll see." He yelled back. "You aim for his heart, I'll use the Wind Scar."

Kagome nodded and aimed her arrow. "Hit the mark!" She shouted and released. At the same time, Inuyasha drew back his sword, thundered, "WIND SCAR!" and brought it forward. Just as Kagome's arrow pierced his heart, a huge attack from Inuyasha's sword sliced into the bear with a huge BOOM.

"Wow." I whispered. Apparently they did know what they were doing.

Didn't do any good, though. After a minute, the bear rose back up, just roaring even louder.

"DAMN IT!" Inuyasha roared, grabbing Kagome and leaping back towards me. Kirara was growling loudly as the bear lumbered towards us. Suddenly a voice came from the forests surrounding us – "_Fox Fire!_" A mountain of blue flame suddenly enveloped the bear. Beside me, Kagome whispered, "Oh my God," but Inuyasha had suddenly grabbed my right hand.

"Time to learn how to use your black hole, wench," he growled, holding out my hand. "Okay, stabilize it with your other hand…and…NOW!" He pulled off the beads in one motion, and the bear, still on fire, was sucked in an instant into my hand.

I didn't even feel anything, just a huge rush of wind. Inuyasha sealed up the beads and I stared at my hand like it was possessed – which, of course, it was. Inuyasha chuckled.

"Better get used to it, Kaza." He said. "Your dad used to do it all the time, and we're gonna need it."

I stared at him. It was the first time he'd actually called me by my name, much less mentioned my father. But then, Kagome said, "Did you see that – fox fire? Do you think – "?

"Kagome?" Came the voice. A teenage fox demon jumped down from the trees. He looked like he was my age, with bushy brown hair in a ponytail, blue hakamas, and a brown vest. He had bright blue eyes, and he saw us he squealed, "Kagome!" and quickly proceeded to tackle her.

"No freaking way." Inuyasha's mouth was hanging open. "You're still alive?"

"Nice to see you too, Inuyasha." He remarked sourly, getting off Kagome, who looked just as surprised.

"Shippou?" she stammered. "I haven't seen you in years. You've been living here?"

He nodded. "Yep, and I've gotten really good at my fox magic, too! Did you see how big that foxfire was?"

"Hello, runt." Inuyasha growled, as Shippou began to pet Kirara. "Well, this is unexpected."

"Tell me about it." He said, then turned to me. "Who's this? Where's Sango?"

"This is her daughter." Kagome said. "Do you remember Kaza?"

He took a good look at me, then gasped, "Kaza!" and tackled me, too.

"Do I know you?" I gasped. This fox was kinda freaking me out.

"I was there when you were born! I traveled with Miroku and Sango, too!"

"Great, can you get off?" I finally struggled to my feet. He stood up too as Inuyasha said, "So, you coming?"

"Huh?"

"We're gonna find Miroku. Getting the whole group back together. Forgetting, of course, that Miroku's probably somewhere in hell right now, Sango didn't want to come, Kagome hasn't killed a demon in years, and we've got Miroku's teenage daughter who doesn't even know how to use the Kazaana. Really, Kirara and I are the only normal ones."

"I like your optimism." I grumbled as Kagome glared at him and Kirara mewed in agreement.

"Of course I'm coming!" Shippou grinned. "I haven't seen you guys in years, and I definitely want to find Miroku!"

Inuyasha and I shared a look, and he shrugged. We were getting the whole group back together – and in my place in the group, I couldn't help but feel like my father.

* * *

**Don't tell me - crappy ending. Trust me, I know. And I know Shippou seems a little, like, stoned or something - but bear with me. The next chapter will be REALLY entertaining...did anyone ever wonder what happened to Kouga after fifteen years! Review and I'll update soon!**


	7. Of Wolves and Wind Demons

Chapter 7 – Of Wolves and Wind Demons

**I realized as I was writing that I had raised a very important question – if this was what happened to the main characters after fifteen years, what had happened to the villains? So this chapter is an encounter with Kouga and Kagura. I'm also expecting appearances from Sesshoumaru, Kanna and Kohaku later in the story. But for now – enjoy!**

After about four days we settled into a comfortable groove. We'd walk at a pretty good pace for most of the day, and usually sleep outside, or when there was a village, we'd barter ourselves a room for the night, which was heavenly. Shippou had gained a new ability – he could actually transform into a little fox, no bigger than Kirara, when he wanted to. So he would usually take that form and sit on Kagome's shoulder, and Kirara would sit on mine, and Inuyasha would be at the head, egging us on. I kind of liked it – the easiness, how there wasn't a real rush, and we had such a tight-knit group. Everyone understood each other, and I realized why my mother hadn't wanted to leave. These were probably the best friends a girl could have.

About a week after we set out, I heard a disturbance in the trees. It sounded like wolves running to me, and my hand immediately went to the katana on my hip. We'd met plenty of minor demons along the way so far, and Inuyasha and Kagome had been teaching me how to fight without having to use my Kazaana. But it became clear that this was not a minor demon, because only a minute after we first heard it moving, a deep, husky voice shot across the clearing – "Inuyasha?"

"Oh, shit!" Inuyasha swore, his eyes widening. He drew Tetsusaiga in one sweep and yelled, "Show yourself, you wimpy bastard of a wolf!"

"I thought you'd died, dogface," said the voice. A wolf demon stepped out from the trees, with a thick, long ponytail of black hair and a vest and miniskirt made from wolf hide. He looked alone, but I could still hear more wolves running free. He grinned at Inuyasha.

"Kouga-kun!" Kagome gasped. Shippou narrowed his eyes and Kirara growled. And me? I had no clue who this dude was, but it was obvious he and Inuyasha hated each other, so I figured I should just shut up and watch the fireworks.

"Kagome!" He gasped, running forward to grab her hands. "You're dressed as a priestess! It looks beautiful on you. I haven't seen you for so long, has the mutt been treating you right?"

"You keep your filthy paws off her, you damn wolf!" Inuyasha roared, stepping between them and shoving Kouga off with Tetsusaiga. I was grinning by now. This was the first time I'd ever seen Inuyasha show some real feeling for Kagome – man, this was getting good!

"Where've you been for fifteen years, Kouga?" He asked. "I haven't smelt the scent of wolf for years. Did you run and hide?"

"I should be asking you the same question." Kouga scoffed. "I was told you'd died, and Kagome had gone back to her old country. But now that I see – " He looked around the group. "Yes, there's the fox, and the cat, too – but where's the houshi? And the Taijiya? You're missing a couple members of your group, mutt – I just see a girl. Huh, but she does look familiar…"

Now this dude had crossed the line. I drew my katana and placed it under his chin, snarling, "I should look familiar. I'm their daughter."

"Kaza, you idiot!" Inuyasha growled. "He's a lot stronger than you, so don't try anything stupid, okay!"

"Inuyasha the babysitter." He said with a smile. He wasn't moving from my sword, though I was nervous – he could have knocked it away by now if he'd wanted to. "Well, we always knew that lech of a monk would get a kid one of these days. But where is he?"

"And we should tell you this why?" Inuyasha barked.

"No, no, let me guess." Kouga said, putting on a thoughtful expression. "Something happened, and the monk and his lovely lady were captured. They'd forgotten how to fight after fifteen years, and in a last-ditch effort to save themselves, they sent their teenage daughter to find you, Inuyasha, and find them and save them. Am I right?"

"No, you're just as stupid as ever." Inuyasha snapped. "If you really want to know, we're after Naraku."

Now the whole mood shifted. The wolf's eyes hardened, and he said softly, "Put away your sword, girl, I'm not going to fight you."

I didn't trust him, but Kagome was nodding at me, so I sheathed my sword and stepped away. He walked over to Inuyasha, and I was amazed, as Inuyasha didn't attack him. Kagome, Shippou, Kirara and I leaned in close to hear.

"Naraku." Kouga said softly. "I heard he'd died fifteen years ago, too, and I haven't seen or smelt him in years. I always assumed he was gone for good."

"He did vanish fifteen years ago." Inuyasha explained. "He and Miroku vanished into the sky in the middle of a fight. Nobody's seen either of them in years. But we know Naraku at least is still alive."

"How?"

"I have this." I said, and shoved my right hand in front of him. It took him a moment to register the Kazaana, and then he frowned and said, "The monk's wind tunnel? It's hereditary?"

"It's a long story." Kagome said quickly. "But the point is that the Kazaana only exists if Naraku exists. So we're going to find him and Miroku."

"You think you can do that?" He said doubtfully. "You couldn't defeat him even when there were six of you. Two of your group is missing, and you haven't fought in years, Inuyasha. This is a fool's errand."

"Well, it's none of your business." Inuyasha said, the rivalry returning in full force. "I told you because I knew you had a bone to pick with Naraku, that's all. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to find him."

"Hold up, dogface." He said. "I should warn you, though again, it's none of my business. Naraku may be gone, but his detachments are still around."

"Say what!" Inuyasha spluttered.

"That's all I can say." Kouga's eyes were darkened. "Just don't die, mutt, I still have a score to settle with _you,_ as well."

Before either of them could say anything else, he vanished in a whirlwind.

"Hold on, what just hap-" Kagome placed a hand over my mouth, and then looked at Inuyasha. "Do you sense it? _Her?_" She whispered.

"I do." He said, Tetsusaiga still drawn. "Keep quiet, all of you, and be ready for battle."

By now, I was just about completely lost. Kouga had liked Kagome? And then he hated Inuyasha, and then had a perfectly civil conversation with him, even warned him? And what were Naraku's 'detachments' anyway? All the same, the whole group was ready for battle. Kirara and Shippou both transformed and were ready to fight, and Kagome had an arrow on the string as we silently moved through the trees.

Only about five minutes later a new voice came, a woman's – "Oh, my, this is unexpected. Inuyasha, what a surprise."

"_Kagura – "_ He yelled. _"Show yourself!"_

"I came here chasing after that wolf," she said, "but instead, I find a dog. This just about made my day." A woman appeared in the trees above us, and I knew from the start she was a demon by her pointed ears and crimson eyes. She was carrying a closed fan in her hand and had a vicious smile on her lips.

"So what brings you here, Inuyasha?" She asked nonchalantly. "That wolf told me you'd died years ago, and taken that girl down with you. But no, you're back, though I think you're missing a couple members of your group. What are you doing in these forests?"

"You tell us your business, Kagura, and we'll tell you ours." Inuyasha shouted up. "Where's your sister, Kanna, and Kohaku?"

"Away on business." She said easily. "That boy Kohaku's all grown up since you last saw him, the Taijiya would be very pleasantly surprised. Where is she, anyway? And the monk?"

Suddenly Inuyasha smiled. "Well, that's a matter you should be very interested in, Kagura." He said dangerously. "The monk vanished with Naraku fifteen years ago, and we're going to find them. Both of them."

Her already pale face turned a color like old oatmeal. "Naraku…? You're going to…to find him?" She stammered. "No, he died!"

"Does Kohaku have his memory back?" Kagome asked, catching on. "Do you feel your heart beat in your chest? No, Naraku isn't dead."

Her eyes flashed. "Where is he?" She snarled. "Where is Naraku?"

"Oh, you know you can't kill him, Kagura," Inuyasha teased, "he's your master, he holds your heart. You should just let us do the dirty work and promise not to interfere."

"I will let you kill him," she said softly, "and keep my sister and Kohaku out of the way. But tell me this – the girl, she is his daughter, isn't she? The monk's daughter. I can see her eyes. Does she have the Kazaana?"

"Yes, and would you like me to test it out on you?" I shouted up. There was a synchronized hiss of "_Kazaaa!" _From Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippou, but I ignored them as the wind demon smiled.

"Very good, girl. Very good. Be on your way, Inuyasha, but if you fail to kill Naraku, I will have to dispose of you myself." She shouted, and then vanished. I looked to Inuyasha and Kagome and said,

"Okay, talk. What just happened?"

"That was…you could call her Naraku's daughter. Kagura. And I think," Inuyasha said, his amber eyes dark, "that she has just become a very important playing piece in this little game we're in."

**Oooh, this was fun. I hope you liked it – I know Kagura and Kouga seem a little, u know, unchanged, but they're demons – I figured 15 years wouldn't be so long if u lived for hundreds of years. Next chapter will be good, I promise – a certain Taijiya has been away from this fanfic for waaaay too long…please review, they really help my writing! Thanks for everything!**


	8. Return of the Taijiya

Chapter 8 – Return of the Taijiya

**I got a lot of requests for longer chapters – now, here it is! I originally thought of making this two chapters, but I figured I could combine them. Enjoy! Kaza's POV continues…and I still don't own Inuyasha…damn it, just read.**

It was sunset in the village. A little girl sat outside her hut, playing with a doll. As she giggled, her father stepped out of the doorway and saw her. He sat down and began to play with her, waving the doll around and slipping it up the sleeves of her yukata. They were both giggling. Sitting on the low step in front of our hut, I watched them from the top of the hill, my heart cold. My knees were pressed to my chest and my arms wrapped around them, and I wiped my wet eyes with the sleeve of my yukata. A father and a daughter. It was something I'd never known.

A breeze whipped through the camp suddenly, and I shivered and wrapped my arms tighter over my body when I felt a warm blanket drape over my shoulders. I started and looked up to see Kagome sitting down beside me, a smile on her face. She didn't look at me, but pretty soon saw the girl and her father playing. He picked her up on his shoulders and carried her inside the hut.

"I know you miss him, Kaza." She said softly.

"I don't even know what he looks like." I whispered. "I've never known him at all."

"He vanished the day Sango learned she was pregnant with you. You would never know him. If he's still alive, he probably doesn't know he has a daughter." Her voice was sadder than I'd ever heard it. After a moment, a question that was burning inside me finally came out.

"Kagome, can you tell me what he was like? My father. When you knew him. What did he look like? How did he act?"

"Miroku?" She said with a grin. She didn't seem surprised at all by my question. "I'll tell you one thing, he was gorgeous. It is true, you have his eyes. He had black hair in a little ponytail, and he was tall. He always wore the black and purple robes of a monk, and carried around a staff. He had a gauntlet that held the Kazaana that looked exactly like yours." She poked my hand. "I had it made for you from what I could remember his looked like. Also, he was a pervert."

"My dad?" I definitely didn't expect that.

"God, yes. He was a lech. Every woman he saw, he asked her to bear his child. He got slapped a lot for it. Especially by your mom. Oh, he drove her crazy. He managed to ruin every single moment the two of them had together by rubbing her ass. Sango slapped him every day, but it was obvious she loved him."

"What was my mom like back then?"

"Your mom? Sango? Miroku was in love with her from the start. She was the best youkai Taijiya in all of Japan, and when she was sixteen, she kicked hard ass. Not a single thing, youkai or man, could stand up to her and expect an easy fight. I can remember when I first saw her, she was tricked into thinking Inuyasha was her enemy. She rode in an Kirara, with her hair all blown back and screaming, "Hiraikotsu!" It's not a surprise that Miroku fell for her more than anyone else."

"She doesn't talk about it very much." I said. It felt so good to talk about it. Kagome wasn't holding back, she was telling me everything she knew. "She hasn't killed a youkai in years, and she doesn't talk about my father unless she has to."

"Of course." Kagome said softly. "Because it hurts. Sango and Miroku were in love. They didn't want anyone else, they only wanted each other, and it showed. When Miroku vanished, Sango's whole life came crashing down, and especially since she was pregnant with you. She still loved him."

"She hasn't been with another man at all." I told her. "It's just me and Kirara in the house. I know she still loves him, because even though I think she's gotten a lot of proposals, she's turned them all down."

Kagome just smiled, and we descended into silence for another minute. Then after a while, it occurred to me another question I'd been dying to ask. "I know my parents were in love when you guys traveled, but what about you and Inuyasha?"

"Inuyasha?" She laughed, and I could see the little wrinkles around her eyes. It occurred to me that I was bringing back memories of a time 15 years ago – when she was – "I was just your age when I came to this land, Kaza, and I swear, the first time I came here, Inuyasha tried to kill me."

"Whoa!"

"He hated me. He hated everybody back then. But mostly me. I was just a nuisance to him, and a reminder of a memory he didn't want. I was the reincarnation of his…past lover, let's just call her. Her name was Kikyo."

"I never knew there was someone before you." I was hooked now. I was getting so much good dirt on my parents, Inuyasha and Kagome there was no way I was going to leave.

"Don't talk about her!" Kagome sighed. "It's a long story, and one you seriously don't need to hear. He hated me back then – when we first met Shippou, he hated Shippou – when we met Miroku, he hated him, and when we first met Sango, he hated her. It takes time for him to build trust. Your mom also hated Miroku because he was such a lecher." A happy smile crossed her face. "But a lot of things change when you've been traveling together for a year, and slowly, I fell in love, and so did Sango. It was amazing…and we were so close to catching Naraku, too, when…"

"When my father vanished." I finished. "But we're going to find him. I promised my mom I'd come back home, and he'd be with me. We have to find him."

She smiled and stood up. "And we will. If I've come to learn one thing from living in this land, it's that anything can happen. People who have been missing for fifteen years can show up again. Keep your eyes open. And let's go to bed – if we wake up late, Inuyasha will yell at us."

"Tell me about it." I grunted, getting to my feet. As we walked back inside the hut, I stopped her and said softly, "Thanks, Kagome."

"Anytime, dear." She whispered, and I went inside. As we fell asleep, I couldn't help but think that there was something prophetic in Kagome's words…but I was too tired to think about it.

_Oh well, _I thought, _what can happen anyway?_

* * *

"Get up, Kaza!" At first Shippou's voice sounded far away – I was dreaming. I felt him shake me, and I groaned. Stupid fox. Let me sleep. 

"KAZA, YOU STUPID WENCH, GET UP!"

Wait, that wasn't Shippou.

Well, if it was Inuyasha, then I'd better get up.

I peeled open my eyes and saw the fangs of a demon lion bearing down on me.

I shrieked my lungs out.

And then Kirara bounded over me, her own fangs drawn, and stabbed him between the eyes. At the same time, I felt someone's strong arms encompass me, and I looked up to see a flash of red. Inuyasha was carrying me away, and he set me down to the side of the battle.

"You okay?" He asked. I nodded, and then he started yelling.

"Holy hell, girl, what did Sango teach you! If I wasn't there when you were born I'd swear you weren't her daughter. Damn it, Kaza, can you do anything other than scream? You're a Taijiya, now PROVE IT!"

"Right." I nodded, standing up and grabbing my katana. It was true – deep inside me I really wanted to prove to them I could fight. Inuyasha seemed to smile as I drew my sword, and said,

"Kaza, you get his eyes."

"Of course!" I stammered. "But how do I do that?"

It looked like he had a heart attack. He stared at me.

"You did not just ask me that."

"INUYASHA!" We heard Kagome yell. She and Shippou were staving off the demon, but only barely. "A little help would be nice!"

"Okay, Kaza, here's what we're gonna do." He said through clenched teeth. "You ride up on Kirara and while Kagome and I aim for his heart, you take out his eyes and blind him."

**(A/N – Anybody see a bit of a Miracle repeat? Sorry, old habits die hard.)**

"Where is Kirara? I don't see her." I said, scanning around. "She's not here."

"This is taking too long." He muttered. "Get on." I clambered onto his back, and in one bound he leapt into the air. We skimmed up above the demon's flaming orange mane until I could see his purple eyes.

"NOW!" Inuyasha roared. Just as I raised my katana to stab his eye, he swiped one paw at us. In a split second, Inuyasha was thrown to the ground, and somehow I was caught in his huge paws.

I didn't even realize what was happening until I felt my katana slip out of my hands and fall to the ground. Below me, Kagome shrieked, "KAZAAA!" I was paralyzed – his mouth was wide open, I could see all the way down his slimy throat. I could my eyes as the stagnant breath washing over me, and the last thing I thought was of my mother's warm arms.

And then it came. The last thing I ever thought I'd hear.

"HIRAIKOTSU!"

I turned, hardly daring to believe it.

"Mama." I whispered.

Kirara was flying into the clearing, flames licking her tail and legs, I could clearly see a rider on her back. She was wearing the same outfit I was, a mask over her face, holding high a giant bone boomerang, with long, ebony hair into a high ponytail that whipped her face, and dark brown eyes that were burning straight into me.

It was just as Kagome described her, and for a second I thought I was dreaming.

And then she hurled the boomerang towards me. It sliced the air and cut off the demon's arm in a single stroke. As it roared, she caught it, Kirara looped back, and she threw the killing blow at its neck. The demon was dead before it knew what was happening.

Me, I hardly even registered that I was plummeting to my death, I was so entranced by how kick-ass my 30-year-old mom was being. But I remembered when the same strong pair of arms caught me. Inuyasha was smiling, and he said, "You need to stop getting yourself in these kinds of situations, Kaza."

He gently set me down, and I nodded in thanks. My eyes were fixed on someone else. Kirara touched ground and she stepped off, taking off her mask and dropping the boomerang. Before I knew it, I sprinted to her and collapsed in her arms. She wrapped her arms around me and all my tears poured out. She stroked my hair and whispered, "Oh, Kaza. My baby."

"Mama…" I could only say. It was too good to be true. But she pulled away and smiled, saying,

"I love you, Kaza, but you kind of suck at these fights, don't you?" I nodded, grinning. She sighed and said, "Oh, well. Plenty of time to learn."

She didn't get any father, because she was soon tackled by two of the most powerful and deadly forces ever to join forces in the name of love – Kagome and Shippou.

"SANGO!" They squealed in unison. She looked overwhelmed.

"Shippou? Kagome? Oh my God." She stammered.

"We missed you SOOOO much!" Shippou was bawling. I looked over at Inuyasha, who was pointedly ignoring the whole scene.

"Shippou! You're so grown up! Wow!" Sango said, getting to her feet. "Amazing how much you've grown!"

"I know!" He beamed. Sango grinned and turned to hug Kagome. Their reunion was much more personal. I realized that when they were my age, they'd traveled the whole length of Japan together, and they were probably best friends.

"We have so much catching up to do." Kagome whispered, and Sango only nodded. But now, Inuyasha had come up, she turned to him and grinned.

"You don't look particularly happy to see me, Inuyasha."

"Feh." He grunted. "I'm just disgusted at how pathetic a fighter your daughter is. She can't even defend herself."

"Watch it." I growled, grabbing my beads. "Don't make me suck you in."

"Just try it, wench." He sneered. We both grabbed the hilts of our swords and I swear we would've killed each other if Kagome hadn't said calmly, "Inuyasha, sit."

He was thrown to the ground as Shippou said, "How did you know where we were, Sango?"

"Oh," she said, calmly, "I've been following you for two weeks."

Great. Now my mother stalks me. My life just gets weirder and weirder.

"I would have gone with Kaza from the start, but I needed to brush up on using the Hiraikotsu, so I waited and then set out to find you."

"You couldn't remember how to use the Hiraikotsu?" Inuyasha scowled. "Pathetic, Sango."

"Aggh, damn it, Inuyasha!" She roared, seizing Hiraikotsu and smacking him on the head. "You are just as tactless and retarded as you were fifteen years ago!"

"Is that a challenge?" He barked, jumping up and massaging his head.

"You bet it is!" My mother yelled, and for a second I thought they were really going to battle. But then, Kagome 'sit' Inuyasha, my mother grinned and dropped Hiraikotsu, and Shippou sighed and shook his head.

I was smiling. My mom was back with me, and everything seemed alright again.

**Okay! Please review! And if you have any questions you would like answered – for example, why doesn't Kagome have kids, where the hell's Kikyo, etc. – please tell me so I can answer them! Thank you for everything:)**


	9. Answers

Chapter 9 – Answers

**Thank you all for being so patient! Finally, Kagome reveals all! And ohmygod, a big hug and bunch of kisses for everybody who reviewed! Hey Joskers…well, enjoy, bitch. ;) Sorry for talking…don't own Inuyasha…read!**

It was the dead of night when Sango felt Kagome's hand on her. When she peeled open her eyes, she saw Kagome wearing only a towel and holding out an identical one. Her eyes were bright. "Hot springs." She whispered.

Five minutes later, Sango and Kagome were undressed and easing themselves into the steaming water. "Ahhhhh." Sango sighed. "My muscles are so sore. This feels great."

"No kidding." Kagome agreed. "That was some good fighting you did today."

"It wasn't even the fighting. I'm just not used to using Hiraikotsu. It's heavier than I remembered."

"I did wonder why Kaza came to us alone." Kagome said thoughtfully. "It didn't seem like you to let her go out into Japan with just Kirara. So you were practicing fighting?"

Sango nodded. "When Kaza was a baby, I exterminated demons for a living. But when she got older, she learned how to do it herself, especially with the Kazaana, even though she wasn't really allowed to use it. So I sort of retired. I didn't want to come with her without even remembering how to use my own weapon."

She sighed. "I'm not as young as I was. And I've kind of been out of it for fifteen years. What's happened, Kagome, since I took Kaza and left? When did you marry Inuyasha?"

"It's a long story." Kagome began, "But I guess you have to hear it. Shortly after you and Kaza left, Shippou left, too. He said he felt it was time he learned to fend for himself in the forests. Then there was no reason for Inuyasha and I to keep that hut we had – we'd only built it to take care of Kaza and Shippou, so after they left, we thought we might as well finish rebuilding the Shikon jewel."

"But here's the thing," she said, "when Naraku vanished, he took the shards with him, too. So including our own shards, there were only about ten shards left in Japan. Naraku still had most of them. Those were hard years." She closed her eyes. "Kikyo began showing up a lot more. I had to go back to my own time much more often so I could at least graduate high school, and I suspected she'd been romancing Inuyasha while I was gone. We fought a lot – Inuyasha and I – and more than once I threatened to go back to my own time permanently. That must've lasted three years until – "

Kagome smiled. "Kikyo died." Sango gasped, and she continued, "I wasn't there. I was in my own time. But apparently, it was some sort of powerful swarm of spider demons. She couldn't defend herself against so many. By the time Inuyasha got there, her clay body had crumbled away to dust.

"I felt her die – it was like my soul was whole again. But I didn't know what Inuyasha would do, so I waited there. After a few days, he came to my time and told me he realized when Kikyo died that I was the one he loved – and he proposed."

Sango grinned, and Kagome blushed. "It was amazing. I graduated high school in my time, then came here and married Inuyasha. We settled in the village where I became a priestess. I still go back to my time sometimes to see my family, but mostly I've been happy here with Inuyasha."

"That's amazing, Kagome!" Sango cried, giving her a huge hug. "Do you and Inuyasha have any children?"

Kagome's face dropped, and Sango knew the answer. She waited for a moment until Kagome could whisper sadly,

"We've tried, Sango. We've tried so hard. At first Inuyasha didn't want any kids, but then… and we…"

She took a deep breath and said, "I've had three miscarriages, Sango. Each time it hurt more and more. It was Inuyasha who finally told me no. He said, 'You're going to kill yourself, Kagome. Please, we have to stop.' The last miscarriage was two years ago, and I couldn't even look at the dead baby, I was crying so hard. Inuyasha was heartbroken, too, but he told me we had to stop trying for my own sake. I guess," she said with a sad smile, "neither of us were destined to have the perfect life. You got pregnant at sixteen with no husband, and every one of my pregnancies has miscarried. I'm 30 now, too old to have a baby. But it's okay now, cause we have Kaza and Shippou again."

Sango smiled, glad to get away from the sad topic. "How has she been doing – Kaza? Does she get along well with everybody?"

"They won't admit it, but we're all overjoyed to have her back. Inuyasha hides it, but he loved having her around. He missed Kaza while you were gone, and he really does protect her. Kirara's been like her mother – never lets Kaza out of her sight. Every night, she transforms, and Kaza sleeps snuggled up against her. And Shippou dotes on her. He treats her like a big sister even though he's older than her."

"And you?"

"Me? Of course I love her. She was like my daughter when you lived with us. But it's hard – she has Miroku's eyes."

"She acts like him, too, have you noticed?" Sango asked. Kagome nodded. "The little things, like how she pets Kirara, or talks to Inuyasha, or just how she sits. She acts like Miroku. It broke my heart when she was first born, because every time I looked at her, I saw Miroku."

"But how she decided to come and find him?" Kagome said. "That's pure you, Sango. She got that right from you."

Sango smiled, and they sat in silence. Sango felt her muscles loosening and all her fears melting away in the steam. But then Kagome burst out,

"I think we're in over our head, Sango."

"Huh?"

"You said it yourself, we're not as young as we once were. We've both been through pregnancy. And neither of us have battled for years. We couldn't defeat Naraku when we were in the prime of our youth, what makes Kaza so confident we can do it now?"

Sango was silent. Kagome pushed back her hair. "I don't mean to sound pessimistic. But, Sango, it's sometimes hard for me to catch up to Inuyasha. I can still shoot my arrows, but my muscles get tired easily. I don't have the energy I did when I was fifteen. Thirty's not that old, but with everything both of us have gone through since we were last teenagers, we might as well be one hundred. I think maybe Kaza's placing too much faith in us – I'm not sure I can do it."

The soft waves of the hot spring were the only sounds for a while. Then Sango said slowly, "I'm not gonna deny that I'm not as good as I once was. I have trouble fighting, too, and when I first heard that Kaza wanted to find her father, I didn't think we could do it either.

"But then I remembered when she was a baby. Sure, it was hard because she looked and acted so much like Miroku. But when I held her little hands, and when she breast-fed, so helpless and dependant on me…when she first opened her mouth and called me 'Mama'…I knew I'd do anything for this girl. For my daughter. And I remembered that I would have done anything for Miroku. I would've gone to hell and back, I would've faced Naraku alone, for him. Kagome, I owe it to them to do this. Kaza needs to know her father…Miroku needs to know he has a daughter. Those two gave me my life, I need to give it back."

Kagome smiled. "I never forgot him – Miroku. I remembered all the times he saved me, all those times when he'd sacrifice for me. You're right. Kaza's right. We owe it to him to save him from wherever he is. I know that Inuyasha, Shippou, Kirara and Kaza will do it."

"So, what do you say, Kagome?" Sango said, standing up and shaking out her hair with a smile. "Think we can still kick demon ass?"

"If you can, I can." Kagome grinned, standing up, too. "I have to prove it to Inuyasha that I'm not a wuss after all."

"Oh, him?" Sango scoffed, getting out and wrapping a towel around her. "I think you proved that in the amount of times you said 'sit' to him today."

"I thought that leaving that necklace on was a good idea. We'd better get to bed – I can guarantee there'll be a demon tomorrow."

"Sure." Sango said. "It was great to talk to you again, Kagome. I missed you."

"I missed you too, Sango. It's good to have you back."

**

* * *

I hope that answered all questions. And I know that a lot of you might be dissatisfied with my answers…but that's your opinion, and I am entitled to mine. No flames, please. But, why don't instead you press that pretty purplish-blue button and review? I really appreciate it! Arigatou!**


	10. Finding Naraku

Chapter 10 – Finding Naraku

**Wow, it's been a while since I updated, ne? But I started high school last week – OMGWTFLMAO – yeah. And I've been trying to slowly break my Inuyasha obsession, you know, so I don't flunk Marine Biology by watching episodes when I should be studying. But I was watching AMV's and I'm like, 'wow, I wanna write!' so I did.**

**All the crap: Still don't own Inuyasha, damn…Kaza's POV…you know the drill by now. READ!**

"Okay, Kaza," Inuyasha yelled at me from up ahead, "we're here!"

"What?" I said. "Wait, we can't be there this soon."

"We've been making pretty good timing," Kagome added from beside me, "so it's perfectly normal." We climbed the crest of the hill and looked down onto the plain where my father and Naraku had vanished. Almost immediately my heart started to race, though I expected the field to be a bit more…well, mysterious or exciting. According to my mom, there had been a lightning storm that had been caused by some dark magic that made my dad disappear, but it was almost a perfectly normal field. A couple miles away or so I could see the edge of the forest, but other than that, it was just one big, grassy plain. I'd been traveling for a whole month for this, and I knew that now was the time for me to be all heroic and smart and think of some ingenious way to pull my dad out of here.

Problem is, I didn't know for shit what I was supposed to do.

"So now what?" Inuyasha sneered. "We got ya this far, now where's Miroku? You said you knew."

"Well, um, yeah, sorta…"

"You don't have a clue, do you?"

"Damn you, Inuyasha."

"Shut up, Inuyasha." My mom said, walking up to me. "Kaza, do you remember what I told you when you left our hut, almost a month ago?"

"Umm…don't die?"

"The other thing."

"Was it, trust the wind?"

"There ya go." She smiled. "We got you this far because we knew that you must've had a good reason to pull us halfway across Japan. And you wouldn't even have gotten the idea to come here if something, or someone, hadn't told you. So think about it. Where is the wind – your heart – telling you Miroku is?"

I was all business now. I walked slowly down the hill, feeling the dirt beneath my sandals. On an impulse, I took them off and crunched the dirt beneath my toes. It kind of felt like it was grounding me. **(A/N Grounding? Get it? LMAO – okay, shutting up.)** Looking out at the field, it wasn't as big as I thought it was – I could probably walk from one side to the other in about half an hour. I stared at the sky. Nothing out of the ordinary there. No lightning storms. No floating castle where my dad might have been hiding. Just beautiful, clear blue, dotted sparsely with a few clouds.

I plopped down. This was hopeless. Why had I dragged the entire crew all the way across Japan on a stupid whim that I could find him? Who was I kidding – I didn't know for crap where he was, and it was very likely I would never know. I could feel the Kazaana tugging at the beads, and right on cue, a soft breeze wound through the field. It picked up the ends of my long brown hair and flicked them across my face. As I brushed them out of my face absentmindedly, that's when the wind picked up, slapping the entire ponytail across my face. As I closed my eyes and the wind breezed over my eyelashes, that's when I got the idea.

The first thing I thought was that I was hallucinating or something, it was so retarded.

What the hell had I eaten yesterday? There was something wrong with me. I mean, really wrong. That's what I thought.

And then I figured, there's nothing else. What the hell? Maybe it'll work.

I ran back to where the whole group was waiting, and said breathlessly, "I think I've got it."

"What?" They all barked at me.

"I think I have to use the Kazaana, and suck him out of the sky."

Their reactions were amazing. I will never forget it.

Inuyasha and Shippou's mouths dropped automatically. Kagome gaped at me. Kirara purred in question. And my mom walked over and put her hand on my arm.

"Honey, what did you eat yesterday?"

Whoa. Ironic.

"No, Mama, seriously!" I shouted, pointing at the sky. Now was the time to display my temper and show them I was serious. "Look, there's nothing else! I think he's in the sky, and somehow I have to get him out with the Kazaana!"

"Kaza, there is seriously something wrong with you." Inuyasha said slowly. I could see Shippou and Kirara nodding in agreement.

I was really going to kill them now. I sighed, turned to my mom and said softly, "It's what the wind is telling me."

She nodded, stroked my hair and said even softer, almost a whisper, "Then do it, baby."

I walked down the hill again, my heart slamming. Behind me, I heard Inuyasha shouting, "Are you crazy? She's gonna get herself killed!" and Kagome saying, "SIT!" I tried to ignore them, even though my heart was seriously thinking about whether or not this was the right thing. It was dangerous for me to open the Kazaana at all, seeing as I had no clue how to use it, and I suspected I'd have to leave it open for a while…but I had no other choice. I owed it to my dad.

Stepping out to the middle of the field, I saw below me that no grass grew in the spot where I was standing. My heart stopped as I realized this was where my dad had vanished. This was the last spot he had ever stood on earth. Taking deep breaths, I braced my legs, raised my hand, and whipped off the beads.

The winds started slowly, then built up speed as the minutes passed that I kept it open. Soon, it was like a miniature tornado was centered around my hand. My body was getting nauseous from keeping it open that long – I hadn't had any real training, aside from sucking up barnyards. And for a while, it didn't look like anything was happening. The sky stayed exactly the same. Not even any clouds were sucked in. For almost five minutes, I stood there, the winds gaining velocity, and I seriously doubted my sanity.

And then, in an instant, the sky turned black.

I didn't even realize it had happened. In just a blink of an eye, the eye turned to pitch black. The cute fluffy clouds became like towering monsters. My heart was pumping against my rib cage now, I could feel it. It only took a minute for the entire gang, ready for battle, to converge around me. I was still wearing my yukata – if anything came out of the sky, there was no way I could fight it. The tornado above my hand slowly began to die down, and from the clouds a figure drifted down slowly, like a shadow descending. And then it took form.

I didn't recognize it, though obviously everyone else did. For a while it looked like a monkey. As it came closer to the ground, I realized it was a man – a man in a baboon suit, with the skull over his face. I could tell that everyone else recognized him, because without even looking, I heard Kirara growl, Kagome and Sango gasp, and the simultaneous _hissss_ as Inuyasha and my mother both drew their swords.

Slowly it touched land. He breathed deeply, with a big sigh, almost as if he was breathing for the first time in - fifteen years? I wrapped the Kazaana back up and almost fell backwards, I was so weak. Kirara ran forward and supported me, and then the creature turned its eyes to me.

They were cold and black.

And then I knew. My father, I'd always been told, had my eyes – blue-purple. This _thing's _eyes were as black as the night sky. And that's when I realized that I hadn't sucked my father out of the sky – I'd sucked out Naraku.

He chuckled, looking straight at me. His laugh made my heart stop.

He laughed again and said darkly, "Well. You must be Kaza."

**Oooh, a cliffhanger! Tough tradeoff - instead of sexy Miroku, we get the creepy guy in the baboon suit. I think this was one of my better chapters – so please review and tell me if you thought so too! Arigatou to you all!**


	11. The Final Battle

Chapter 11 – The Final Battle

**Oh my God! I never realized people loved my story so much! It was amazing all the reviews I got for the last chapter, I was dancing around, I was so happy! And just one more review and I will have the same number of reviews as Miracle! Which is like, huge for me, because my only goal for this story was to get more reviews than Miracle! I love you all! And to reward you – the update! THE FIGHT WITH NARAKU! WHOO-HOO!**

**Disclaimer: Nobody cares. I don't own Inuyasha. I do, however, own Kaza. Whose POV this chapter is from. You take her, and I'll sic my tortoises on you. NOW READ!**

"How do you know me?" I stammered, leaving heavily against Kirara. Naraku chuckled again. I suddenly felt myself being lifted onto Kirara. My mother, with as much ease as if I had been a feather, lifted me onto the cat demon, her eyes never leaving Naraku. Now Inuyasha had moved in front of me, his face expressionless but for a tight smile.

"Naraku. It's been a while." He growled.

"You haven't changed a bit, Inuyasha." He said wryly. "None of you have…Kagome, Shippou, Kirara…oh, and of course – " He grinned. "Sango."

Mama couldn't hold it in any longer. "Where is Miroku? What the hell have you done with him!" She screamed.

"Now, that's a very interesting story. Would you like to hear it?"

I didn't say anything, my stomach tight with fear. _Did he kill my father?_

"The reason we were sucked out of the sky, some – how long has it been?"

"Fifteen years." Inuyasha snarled.

"Oh, yes. Fifteen years. We were sucked up into the sky because of the mixture of my shouki and his Kazaana. When both of those powerful elements met in a deadlock for that length of time, magic was released from before the dawn of time, and we were taken away from earth. I can't say I exactly understood what was happening at the time, but Miroku, being a mere human, had his memory erased as soon as he was raised up into the clouds. The last word he ever spoke for years was 'Sango,' that night we vanished."

My mom began tearing up, her body shaking. I didn't even understand what was happening and I was crying.

"Touching, isn't it?" He sneered. "I recovered quicker, being the more powerful of the two. Actually, I regained my memory right around the time Kaza was born."

My heart stopped cold.

"I was going to kill you." He said nonchalantly. "You and your bothersome father, while you were both at your weakest state. But then it occurred to me that if it took a combination of shouki and the winds from the Kazaana that would suck us into the sky, it would most likely take that same combination to release us from the magic spell. And so, I let you live. I thought that maybe one of you might prove useful to me and release me from my limbo. Though it would have been kinder to have killed Miroku. He has his memory back now, but he's tormented by it because he can't see his lovely Sango again. And of course, he has no idea Kaza even exists."

"You bastard." The words finally came out of my mouth. "You goddamn bastard."

He smiled. "Well, I suppose you would know all about that, wouldn't you, girl?"

Hot tears spilled out, and I wanted nothing more than to run forward and rip out his heart with my own hands. But before I could do that, an even more powerful force rushed forward. Inuyasha, roaring at the top of his lungs, drew Tetsusaiga and began a furious assault of Wind Scars, while Kagome and Shippou launched themselves at him from the back, and my mother's Hiraikotsu came spinning down from above. As Naraku dodged the attack and the battle began vividly, my mother called out,

"Kirara, take her! You stay back, Kaza!"

"WHAT!" I roared. "HELL NO! I'M NOT GOING TO STAY BACK!" But Kirara was already airborne and we were flying _away _from the fight – the fight that _I_ had traveled over Japan for two months for!

"DAMN IT, KIRARA, PUT ME DOWN!" I shrieked. "I WANT TO FIGHT!" She ignored me and carried me away. I looked back and saw the remnants of Inuyasha's Wind Scar reverberate through the air. Naraku had dodged every one of them, and Kagome's arrows too. Tears cascaded down my cheeks, and I whispered, "Kirara, they need me."

She set me down where all of our stuff was piled up. I sat down, put my face on my knees and cried. I couldn't fight. Maybe they were right – I should stay back. I hadn't even been in a real battle before. But still – every particle of my being, every vein in my body was on _fire_ with the longing to fight and KILL the man who had made my life a living hell!

And then I felt Kirara's warm snout in my face. I looked up, wiping away tears, and blearily saw her holding something in her mouth.

It was my sword.

Unsheathed.

The iron glistening.

And ready to fight.

I grinned.

"Have I ever told you I loved you, Kirara?"

She purred and lowered herself to the ground. I swung myself on and we rode up into the air. My hair by now was loose from its ponytail and the wind whipped it around. I was still in my yukata, very deathly weak, and I'd never fought a battle like this before in my life.

Did I care? Hell no. I was a girl with a sword, a mission, and a father to rescue.

"NARAKU!" I roared, as Kirara and I swooped low to the battle. Everybody looked up in awe. I could swear in that second, I saw Inuyasha smile. My mom just looked like she was going to have a heart attack.

"DIE!" I yelled, actually jumping to the ground and plunging my sword into his chest.

Was that stupid? Very. Probably the stupidest decision I ever made. Still, I was on an adrenaline rush. You can't blame me.

He laughed, just pulled the sword out of his chest, tossed it to me, and we started to fight.

Parry, lunge, feign, fall back – I knew how to fight with a katana, but so did he. And Thank God, my mom actually stayed out of this, so Naraku and I dueled on that field. I was tired, and probably not fighting my best, so I almost felt like he was toying with me. I kept making reckless jabs towards his heart – again, the stupidest decision I ever made – and I kept losing energy with every thrust. We were moving all over that field, my entire body focused on blocking his attacks, falling back, lunging forward –

At one point our swords were stuck in a deadlock, and he leaned forward to me. I could see his eyes glistening through the mask. "What are you doing, Kaza?" He whispered. "What will you gain if you get Miroku back? You were an _accident_, Kaza. You weren't _supposed_ to happen at all. Miroku never wanted a daughter, he wanted a son. He doesn't even know you exist – what makes you think he's going to love you if you do find him?"

I was an _accident?_ My father wouldn't love me? His sweet words entered my body like poison, and I loosed my grip on the sword, his words making knots in my stomach.

And that's when, in just one instant, he disarmed me, and stabbed me in the shoulder.

The thing about having very serious and life-threatening injuries is that they're numb. When you stub your toe or get a splinter, you feel the pain right away. But when you get stabbed in the shoulder by a psychotically evil demon, at first I didn't even feel it.

And then blood gushed in a fountain from my shoulder, pain exploded and ricocheted throughout my entire body, and I screamed and dropped to the ground, my hand groping for my shoulder. I felt the blood running through my fingertips and felt like vomiting up my guts.

Though I swear to God – I would have picked up my sword and continued fighting if the other members decided that wasn't such a good idea.

"Hit the mark!" I heard Kagome scream, her arrows wizzing overhead, and Inuyasha barked, "KAZA! STAY DOWN!" My mother sprinted forward, picked me up in her arms in one scoop, and again raced through the field. The blood loss was quickly making me dizzy, and I groaned and pushed my face into her chest. She set me down away from the battle, and I vaguely saw Shippou run forward with a bandage. She kissed me on my forehead, whispered quickly to Shippou to take care of me, and then ran back to the battle. My head was throbbing, my shoulder was completely numb, my yukata was entirely drenched in blood, and somewhere along the lines, I'd lost my sword.

Damn it.

Shippou poured water down my throat at one point, and that's when I woke up. He sighed and said, "How are you doing?"

"Wha - ? Oh…okay, I guess…How's the battle?"

"Not good." He whispered. "I've gotta get back in there, Kaza. You stay here. You're in no condition to fight."

"Okay. Thanks." I whispered back, and he turned into a fox and raced back to the field. I actually wanted to comply with this request – my shoulder was throbbing like a heart, and my entire body felt like I'd been sucked dry, I'd lost so much blood in so little time. Through half-open eyes I saw Shippou launch himself at Miroku, Kirara and my mom coming in for reinforcements. Kagome was tending to Inuyasha, who'd received a bad injury. He looked half-conscious. I registered Kirara and Shippou being thrown back by Naraku, screaming, and as my mother ran forward, hurling Hiraikotsu, he smiled and waved his hand, and with a gust of wind, Hiraikotsu was thrown right back at her, hitting her square in the chest. She fell backwards, and he seemed to smile. I waited for someone to get up and get back in there, but I realized with a start that they were all down. Inuyasha couldn't fight, and Kagome was helping him – my mom, Shippou and Kirara were unconscious or couldn't fight.

I was the only one left.

He knew it, too, and he knew how badly he'd hit me. He smiled, a crazy, creepy smile, like he knew that he'd won. And as he started to walk away, I suddenly had a thought that that creepy smile was probably the last thing my dad had ever seen in this world.

That alone was enough to push me off my feet, tottering, clutching my shoulder, and call out, "Naraku!"

My voice cracked and it didn't seem like he heard me. I blinked back the pain coursing through my body and yelled as loud as I could, "NARAKU! COME BACK HERE!"

He turned slowly. When he saw me, just a little girl, bloodstained and black-eyed, tired and scared, he just laughed.

Until I grabbed the beads on my right hand.

"NO, KAZA!" Kagome screamed desperately. "DON'T DO IT, YOU'LL KILL YOURSELF! KAZA!"

I didn't listen. Gritting my teeth with the pain, I pulled off the beads. It was a moment of pure instinct. My brain wasn't working right now. My brain couldn't give a shit. I was acting on my guts. I was doing what the wind was telling me.

And if I did die?

I'd die trying to save my father. Just like he'd died trying to save my mother.

"KAZAANA!" I roared, holding out my hand.

And then the winds started.

I loved every moment of it.

The winds ripped through my hair, I felt the chill as it rushed over the warm blood on my arms, I saw the look of panic on Kagome's face and the look of pure shock on Naraku's, I saw the swirling vortexes careening around me, and the only thing I thought was,

_Die, Monkey boy. Feel the wrath of the curse you gave me. This is for my father._

He started to get sucked in. He couldn't resist the winds. I started to feel the effects of opening the Kazaana immediately – my whole body was going to collapse, my arm and shoulder were both in complete hell, and the only thing I wanted to do was faint. Or even better, die.

And yet there was no way in hell I was going to close that Kazaana, even if it meant me getting sucked in with it.

He plunged the sword into the ground and held on, trying to gain some ground in the vortexes. I laughed, a laugh like a maniac.

"GIVE IT UP, NARAKU!" I shrieked, my voice high. "IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK!"

But he was strong, and he started to walk against the winds. I scowled and walked forward. The wind pressure increased, but I realized so did his shouki. His demon aura was just as strong as my winds, and it surrounded him and grounded him. I realized that no matter how hard I tried, he was still going to get away. He started to walk away from me – away from the winds – and he was going to escape when something happened that I can only describe as a miracle.

There was another set of winds.

It came from the direction directly opposite mine, just like my Kazaana, and Naraku was caught in between the winds. His shouki was ripped to shreds on the violent winds that now roared through the clearing and threatened to break my eardrums. I prayed that my mom and the others had gotten out okay. As I watched, Naraku couldn't resist it. He was slowly lifted into the air, his body jerking between one flow of wind and the other, and I saw him, suspended, the winds whipping his baboon suit, and I smiled in satisfaction.

This was the man who had made my life a hell. This was the man who had ruined my mother's love. This was the man who had practically killed my father. This was the man who everyone all over Japan would love to see die.

And I was the one who got to do it.

It was surreal to see him die. He was actually ripped in half by the force of the two opposite winds. He died in only a second, but it felt like an eternity to me. He was split into two, that hideous baboon suit leaving the face of the planet forever, one half sucked slowly into my Kazaana, the other half getting sucked into the other winds across the fields.

But as soon as my half of Naraku was sucked into the tunnel, suddenly the winds stopped. I looked down in complete astonishment and saw the swirling black hole on my hand growing smaller and smaller, the winds no more than little breezes swirling around my hair. For a second I stared straight down my hand into the endless limbo where Naraku was now trapped, and then, my heart beating a quick tempo and my brain on overdrive, it disappeared.

My Kazaana.

Gone.

The curse was broken.

I didn't believe it at first.

I flexed my hand, looking into my palm like I was in a trance. There it was. A real palm. With all its little wrinkles and lifelines. Without any cursed wind tunnels. Slowly, surreally, I undid the straps of my gauntlet – something I'd never done before – and slid it off my wrist. It was pure white skin underneath – I'd been wearing the gauntlet since the day I was born – but there it was! A normal wrist! My wrist! NO WIND TUNNELS!

Happy tears spilled down now, and then I dared to look up.

Across the field there was a man, who was looking at his wrist exactly like I was. Like he was in some kind of trance. He was wearing the robes of a monk – a black robe with a purple strip over it, and beside him was a golden staff. He had black hair in a little ponytail at the nape of his neck. As my eyes focused, I saw that he had a gauntlet exactly like mine on his wrist. At that, my heart started to race and my whole body flushed, and then he looked up.

His eyes.

My eyes.

The same.

The same blue-purple.

He was my father.

Miroku.

**Don't tell me – I suck. It was the worst ending ever. However, think about what this chapter has accomplished! Naraku's dead, the curse is broken, Kaza saved the day, aaannnndddd – MIROKU'S BACK! YAY! For all who were wondering, yes this is inspired a bit by ep. 30, when Sango fights Naraku wearing her yukata, with just a sword and that little dagger thingy. I love that episode, and I thought it definitely applied to Kaza. So, please please review, I really appreciate it, and if you do, I promise to put up a juicy chapter very soon – Arigatou!**


	12. My Father, My Love

Chapter 12 – My Father, My Love

**Ladies and Gentlemen: In response to all the inspirational, loving reviews, I present to you, without further ado, the chapter all of us (myself included) have been waiting for since this damn story ever started – MIROKU! I DON'T OWN INUYASHA! THE DISCLAIMER'S OUT OF THE WAY, NOW READ AND ENJOY!**

It was my father.

With his deep purple eyes, those dark orbs that locked onto me and held me. I felt my heart stop cold, all of time stopped in one single instant, while I knew it was him.

But I couldn't move.

I was frozen to my spot. I couldn't even speak. My lungs breathed raggedly, my whole body trembling, as much with shock as with the exhaustion. He straightened up, still looking right at me. But when finally feeling zapped back into my legs, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning around, I saw Inuyasha, being supported by Kagome. He was in horrible shape. Blood trickled from his scalp and stained his red haori, but through his black eye, he looked at my father, then me, and then whispered.

"Kaza. Wait." He coughed, and then Kagome said softly, "There's someone else he needs to see first."

I wanted to yell, "He's my father! I traveled across Japan for two months to see him!" But then I realized what they meant, because my mother was walking up.

Her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears, her thick brown hair tumbling over her shoulders and her body shaking. He saw her, and his mouth widened. His eyes locked onto her now. Finally, I heard her whisper,

"Miroku."

She started walking, then started running, tears cascading down her face, and he came forward too, a beautiful look on his face. They collided in the center of the field, arms wrapping around each other, my mother still crying, and she whispered,

"I love you."

"I've loved you all along." He said, his voice choked, holding to her like there was nothing else in the world he wanted. He closed his eyes and placed his head on top of hers, finally crying too. She smiled and looked up at him, saying,

"Never let me go, Miroku. I'd die if we couldn't be together again."

My father's mouth opened, just so slightly, and my heart swelling as I watched, he bent down and caught her in a kiss.

I was crying. Deep down it was kind of sick to see my parents kissing like that, but I was so happy to see them together again, and to finally see my mama the happiest she'd ever been, they could've had sex on that field and I probably would have cheered them on. My heart was full to bursting, and it didn't even matter that I wasn't the first one to meet him, cause I knew that she deserved it more.

He buried his hands in her thick hair, she wrapped her arm around his middle, and they kissed like…like they hadn't seen each other in fifteen years. Behind me, Kagome and Shippou were sobbing, and Inuyasha was smiling. Actually smiling. It took a lot to see him smile, and this, this was totally worth it.

When they pulled away, I'd never seen my mother's face like that. Shining, and radiant, and just beautiful. She stroked his cheek, he smiled at her, and it was the most perfect thing I'd ever seen.

I started to walk forward. I couldn't help it. Somewhere, I was almost sad that my mother could kiss him like that, and I wanted to be there too. I wasn't really thinking. But my body was too weak. It felt like my soul was going to collapse on me. I walked forward about five steps, and then my legs fell out from under me.

I was going to hit the ground, and I knew it, but I didn't.

A pair of arms caught me.

I looked up and saw my eyes mirroring back at me.

It was my father. He'd caught me when I fell.

My soul was going to burst. I started crying anew and buried my face in his chest. And he did exactly what I'd always dreamed he'd do. He did exactly what, in my wildest fantasies, when I'd lie alone at night and dream of my dad, I always prayed and hoped he'd do.

He wrapped his arms around me and held me so close to him I could hear his heartbeat.

I cried, I sobbed, I clung to his robes like a baby. I curled up, snuggling myself in his arms, clutching his body for dear life. I felt so helpless, so alone, and he held me and rocked me and kept me close. He was my island in the stormy sea. Deep down, I knew this was it.

He was my father, the father I'd always wanted. The father that I'd traveled across Japan and defeated Naraku for.

And there was nothing more _I_ wanted in the world.

My sobs finally slowed, and he reached up and stroked my hair, just like my mother did when I was sad. I finally opened my eyes and saw my mom come up. She bent down, stroked my hair too, and then whispered,

"Miroku, the day you disappeared, I was pregnant. She's your daughter."

I was almost scared of what he'd say, how he'd react. But I didn't have anything to worry about.

"Sango," he murmured, "I knew from the first moment I saw her."

I heard his heart pump, wrapped my arms around him, and just smiled. It was probably the happiest moment of my life.

He leaned down and said softly, "What's your name?"

"Kaza." I whispered.

He started and looked up at Sango. "You named her, didn't you? 'Kaza' means wind."

She grinned. "I thought you'd like it."

He chuckled and stroked my hair, and then my mom said, "I need to take care of her, Miroku. She's very badly injured from Naraku. She faced him by herself, and he really hurt her. Her shoulder was stabbed and it didn't get the proper attention it needed."

"She took him on by herself?" He said in awe. "Wow. Of course, she needs care now."

"Here, baby," my mom whispered, gathering me up in her arms. I'm still amazed she could even lift me, but then again, my mother astounded me everyday. "I'm so proud of you, Kaza. It's gonna be okay now."

She carried me gently over to the medical supplies, set me down and then slowly pulled down the shoulder of my yukata. As she changed the bandage and began to disinfect my shoulder, I looked through slitted eyes and saw my dad stand up, only to be tackled instantaneously by Kagome, Shippou and Kirara. I smiled and whispered, "Look, Mama. Kagome and Shippou are doing the ritual tackle."

She smiled. "Oh, he's in for it now, isn't he?"

I heard him cry, "Kagome! Kirara! Shippou! You're all okay!" In one voice, they screamed; "MIROKU!" and Kirara mewed. I leaned back, still smiling.

Oh, yeah. This was the happiest day of my life.

"Miroku, I'm so happy! It's been so looong!" Shippou cried, grabbing his neck. Kirara jumped up on his other shoulder and purred, rubbing his cheek. And Kagome managed to restraint herself while Miroku said, "Shippou, you've gotten so big! You've gotten a lot stronger, too, I can barely hold you. Oh, Kirara, you're just like I remember. It's so good to see you guys again."

Kagome came up and wrapped his arms around his neck, whispering things in his ear. He smiled, whispered back, and then as if in slow motion, I saw his hand move down her back.

It stopped right on her butt.

"DAMN IT, MIROKU!" She exploded, slapping him. My mom figured out what happened, whipped around and screamed,

"Miroku, do that one more time and I swear to God I'll kill you! You haven't seen me for fifteen years and you go and rub some other girl's butt?"

"I love you, Sango," he called back, "but I had to do it. Habit."

"Arrghh." She groaned, turning back to me. "He hasn't changed a bit."

I was watching the scene with wide eyes. "My dad's a pervert?"

"What, Kagome didn't warn you?" She grunted. "Hell yes he was a pervert. Everyone always told me I should've picked a better man to fall in love with." Then she hissed, and her tone changed instantly. "Oh, baby, you've got a pretty bad cut here. It went deep into your muscle. Oh, no, I think you're going to have to lie low for a while with this arm. You're going to have a scar, Kaza."

"It's okay." I murmured. "It was worth it."

She smiled, and I looked over to see Inuyasha coming up to him. Kagome and my dad were both smiling, even though he had a huge red handprint on his cheek. Inuyasha smiled at him, a really big smile for Inuyasha's standards, and said softly,

"You're a lecherous son of a bitch, Miroku. But it hasn't been the same without you."

"I missed you too, Inuyasha." He said with a hint of sarcasm, grinning. Inuyasha scoffed, quickly getting over the emotional moment, and I closed my eyes. I was really tired. My mom had finished on my shoulder and was moving down to all the various injuries all over my body. I knew I'd overexerted myself during the fight, but I wasn't thinking about the consequences then. I felt them now, though. My muscles were so sore, my whole body burned, my head was pounding. For it being the best day of my life, I sure felt like shit.

But I heard crunching leaves, and struggling to open my eyes, I looked up to see the whole group standing over me.

"Hey, Kaza." Inuyasha said. "You actually took on Naraku by yourself today – and you put up a really good fight. And you actually defeated him when none of the rest of us could."

"It was your best fight ever!" Shippou cheered.

"I don't know, hun." Kagome said, smiling. "None of us could ever kill Naraku when we were at our best, but without ever being in a fight before, you managed to do it. It was a little inspirational."

"But you guys all helped." I whispered, losing consciousness, fast.

"I know we did, Kaza." My mom said. "But it was your idea to take us across Japan, it was your idea to find Miroku, and you were even the one to take down Naraku. You did so great, baby."

Kirara came up to me, purring, and rubbed my hand. Inuyasha smiled at me. And as I finally blacked out, I saw my dad lean down to me, looking right at me with those eyes, exactly like mine, and say,

"I'm proud of you, Kaza."

**Oh, yes. Oh, yes, yes, yes. That was probably one of the best love scenes I'd ever written. I'm sorry it's so short, but I didn't want to go over the top with the love scenes. Trust me, you get more of it later. :) A couple things I must say first that I didn't want to say in the opening notes –**

**1. All credit for the last chapter goes to joskers. We were at a friend's house and we were talking about this story, and she was the one who first suggested that Kaza and Miroku defeat Naraku together by both sucking him with the Kazaana. So thanks, babe. ;)**

**2. Yes, Kaza does mean wind. 'Kaze' is actually the Japanese translation for wind, and if you modify it slightly, 'Kaza' means wind. Think about it, those of you that watch the sub version. _Kaza_ana? _Kaze_ no Kizu? See where I'm going with this?**

**And if you've read all that, you're a stalker. :) Jk, I love you all! I'm pushing 50 reviews! Oh my god! Thank you so much! Please review, you guys rock my world, I appreciate every one! I hope you enjoyed it – MIROKU IS BACK! YAY!**


	13. What Naraku Left Behind

Chapter 13 – What Naraku Left Behind

**Hey, everybody. Sorry it's taking so long to update. I just haven't exactly been 100 lately, for various reasons. High school sucks one day and then I love it the next, so ya know…I'm channeling my emotions into Kaza. Our brave heroine's going to go through some tough times soon. Every fifteen year old does. :)**

**Come on, people! I am not such an evil authoress as to actually end it at that last chapter! Just because they found Miroku doesn't mean the stories over! I am expecting some very, VERY surprising plot twists, so don't fear! I think Daughter of the Wind might even break 20 chapters, and I'm almost to 60 reviews! I love you guys! Anyway, I don't own Inuyasha, but I own Kaza…just read.**

When I finally woke up, my head pounding like a gong, I was still lying where my mom had left me. I blinked slowly. It didn't seem like anyone was here.

_Great, _I thought. _Thanks, guys. Just leave me alone. Injured. Unable to move. And unguarded. I feel the love, Mama._

Then Kirara bounded up, mewing, rubbing her little nose into my neck and licking my face. I smiled and stroked her. "You're still here, huh, girl? I love you too."

She purred and curled up into a ball in the hollow of my shoulder – the uninjured one, of course. Someone yelled, "You awake, Kaza?"

Inuyasha walked into the clearing, carrying some berries. He looked very…well, stupid, and I almost laughed.

"Your mom sent me down to give these to you." He said, dropping down beside me. "Can you eat?"

I nodded and tried to sit up, but he pushed me back down. "Damn, girl, sit down. I'll give you the berries."

I pushed back my embarrassment and shame at having to be hand-fed, like a baby, and opened my mouth as Inuyasha popped a berry in. I can only say it was very humbling for both of us.

"Where is everyone?" I asked between bites.

"In the forest. Miroku's explaining what happened in the sky, and your mom's talking to him about what's happened down here."

As if I didn't feel crappy enough, my heart dropped like a rock and tears bubbled in the corners of my eyes. They'd went off into the forest to talk _without me?_ When I was the one who'd rescued Miroku in the _first freaking place?_

Inuyasha wasn't stupid, though, however he may appear. He noticed how quiet I'd gotten and said,

"What's wrong, Kaza? It's not like we've forgotten you, we just didn't think you should have been moved."

"Then why'd you go into the forest?" I replied bitterly. "You could've stayed right here beside me and talked."

I thought he was going to give me some crap about it being too open, but he was silent. I clenched my fists.

"Grown-up stuff, huh?" I snarled. "Stuff I wouldn't understand. Kaza's too young. Kaza's injured. Kaza doesn't know what it's like. Welcome to reality, Inuyasha – Kaza didn't even know what her father _looked like._ Kaza knows what it's like to lose someone. Kaza understands a hell of a lot more than you guys think she does."

I was getting ahead of myself, but I didn't care. I thought I'd been happy, but suddenly it was like _they _all brought it crashing down on me by freaking abandoning me in this field. And yes, by _them_ I mean my mom and dad. Had they forgotten they had a daughter?

Inuyasha picked up a berry and put it in my mouth. "It's more than that." He murmured.

That's when suddenly a woman's voice shot across the clearing – _"Inuyasha!"_

I recognized it as the demon woman we'd seen in the forest when we were traveling here, before my mom came – what was her name…oh, yeah –

"Kagura!" Inuyasha gasped, jumping up and grabbing Tetsusaiga. "Stay down, Kaza."

I HATED this! Everyone was telling me to stay back and step down! I could fight too, you know, Inuyasha! I was the one who killed Naraku, remember!

But while I silently fumed, Inuyasha got ready for battle, and Kagome, Shippou and my parents streamed into the clearing. When I saw my parents my heart skipped, and I wasn't sure if it was good or bad. It was all too confusing. So I focused on Kagura. Killing demons. That was something I could do.

She was flying in on a giant feather, her robes billowing. I noticed that this time she had a little girl with her. She was wearing a snow white yukata, with thick white hair and black eyes. She was holding a mirror and was definitely the creepiest little girl I'd ever seen. Ever. And I've seen plenty of creepy little girls.

The feather disappeared as Kagura touched ground, and she came forward, flicking open the fan. "If you didn't kill Naraku, Inuyasha, I will personally chop off every one of your appendages, feed them to you, and then carve out your innards and throw them to demons, do you understand me?"

"Well then it's a very good thing he's dead." Inuyasha said smugly.

Kagura narrowed her eyes. "Where's the proof?"

"Hello, Kagura." My father said cheerily. "My, it's been a while, hasn't it?" I couldn't help but grin. God, he was good.

"Well I guess they couldn't have killed you off in the battle as well." She said nonchalantly. "You can't win 'em all. But Inuyasha…you have my respect." She smiled. It was the first time I'd ever seen a demon smile. A real smile, not an _I already killed off your father and now I'm going to kill you and you better believe I'm going to enjoy it _smile. Cough cough Naraku cough

"I have my life back now. My heart beats within my chest again. You have my gratitude, Inuyasha."

"Um, I was the one that killed him?" Hello? Why was everyone pretending like I didn't exist?

Kagura turned to me. "_You _killed him?"

"Yes." I growled. This was really helping my self-consciousness.

Kagura looked surprised, and opened her mouth to say something when the little girl stepped in front of her. Her black eyes met mine until the mirror reflected me. I heard Kagome suck in a breath and whisper, "Kanna. Oh, Kaza, be careful."

In a second, I saw myself in the mirror. I knew I must look like crap – I was still wearing my bloody yukata, my hair loose and tangled, and from the throbbing in my eye, I knew I had a really bad black eye. But that wasn't the image I saw in the mirror.

In the mirror, there was me. I looked just like I did now – with a black eye, a bloody yukata, and a bandaged and bleeding shoulder wound. But I was wearing a deep purple kimono that offset how pale my skin was, and my hair looked…wow. Thicker, and darker. And all around me, there was a hurricane, a twisting vortex of winds. I was standing in the eye of the storm, my hair whipping around my head, and my very own, purple-blue eyes staring straight at me.

I'd never been more freaked out in my life.

"Kaza." The little girl whispered. "The Daughter of the Wind."

Everyone stared at me, and I couldn't take my eyes off that girl's black eyes. Beneath her, I still saw that other image of me, looking so beautiful, so mysterious, so…wild. It scared the shit out of me. My heart was drumming so loud I could hear it and my palms were shaking like leaves.

"Kagura. Do not underestimate her." She whispered. "This girl. The Daughter of the Wind."

"What are you saying?" I whispered. "What do you mean?"

"It is all irrelevant now." Kanna said, stepping behind Kagura. The wind demon looked at me and said, "If Kanna says so, it's true. I suppose I owe you my gratitude, girl. But I hope our paths never cross again."

And from then, she pulled a feather from her hair, and in a cloud of smoke, it grew exponentially, big enough for her and Kanna to both sit on. As they sat down and it began to rise, my mom raced forward and yelled out,

"Kagura! Where is Kohaku!"

She only smiled as she flew off into the wind. And I just stared up at them, my entire body trembling, and one thing kept going through my mind – Kanna's creepy, whispered voice saying,

_The Daughter of the Wind._

Oh, my God, what was happening to me?

**I know that Kanna probably seems a little OOC, but I actually haven't watched too many episodes with her in them, so u can't blame me. And actually, I didn't plan on this story being called 'Daughter of the Wind' around this chapter, but it does seem to fit, ne? Please review – let's see if we can break 60! I'd really appreciate it! Arigatou!**


	14. Breakdown

Chapter 14 – Breakdown

**Okay! By a unanimous vote we are going to do….the second option! Yay! You guys picked the one that I liked! Okay! I don't own Inuyasha, and here it is -**

It was almost a week later when Inuyasha and my mom deemed me well enough to walk around on my own. I thought that I should have been allowed to walk sooner, because I felt fine, but they didn't want me stressing out my shoulder. Secretly, I doubted them. I doubted everything they said.

I knew he'd accepted me as his daughter. And we both knew we loved each other. But after that, I wasn't sure how things were playing out. My mother…oh, God. My mom was acting like a teenager. She loved him, staying by his side all the time, keeping him beside her. I didn't mind until one night I woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare and found them having sex.

Have you ever walked in on your parents? It's sick. It's wrong. It's disturbing. You don't even want to think about it. When I saw them, it felt like my whole soul had just been torn apart by a swarm of demons with razor-sharp claws. I couldn't control my emotions – I wanted to run into a dark corner and scream and cry like I was two years old. What had happened to my happy ending?

That night I went to Kirara and cried to her. She'd been my support all week, carrying me, staying up with me when I got scared, always listening, even when she couldn't say a word. That night in particular I was nostalgic for – get this, my wind tunnel. My Kazaana. My curse. I realized that night that I was missing my Kazaana because it had symbolized the one thing I had in common with my father, aside from my eyes. When I had my wind tunnel, my mother loved me because I was the only living thing she had to remind her of Miroku. When I had my curse, I had a goal worth getting to. Now the goal was fulfilled. My father was back. Everything was supposed to be perfect.

Now we had the real Miroku. My real father. It was like they didn't need me to remind them of him anymore. I knew I was overreacting – my mother still kissed me every night before I went to bed, Inuyasha still teased me and Kagome still pampered me as usual, my dad gave me a soft smile and a hug every day. But why did it all seem so empty?

We were supposed to be heading back for the village where Inuyasha and Kagome had lived. I was trying to act as normal was I could. I figured if I could get back to the village, by then everything would straighten out. The group kind of gave me space, even Shippou, which was, like, a friggin' miracle. They figured I was still freaked out from the Kanna incident. Which I was. Well, I guess. I didn't even know what was going on inside me then.

I walked alongside Kirara, slowly rotating my shoulder. It felt good to get my muscles stretched out – they were healing pretty quickly, but I could see the outline of a scar where he'd stabbed me. Inuyasha and Shippou were arguing about something, Kagome and my mom were talking softly, and my dad, Kirara and I were walking in silence. I was getting pretty hungry – we were running low on supplies. Kagome's ninja food could last forever, but with all of us needing to eat at least twice a day to keep moving, we were dangerously low.

That night we came upon a village. I was really, really, REALLY happy about this, but before I could run tearing into a village for food, we had a conference. We had no money. Nada. Zip. Zilch. So we had a couple of options – Shippou or Kirara pretend to be a rogue demon and Miroku come through and pretend to get rid of them, we steal some money from the wealthiest house and split, or we hide out in the attic of one of those houses. As I listened to them conferring about this as if it was perfectly normal, I finally said,

"Why don't we just _ask _if there's an extra place to spend the night? I mean, God, guys, you sound like first-rate criminals deciding which house you're going to rob."

They looked at me. "Um, yeah, 'cause we _are_ trying to decide which house we're going to rob." Inuyasha sneered at me. "So pipe down, girl, and let _us_ figure out what to do."

"You stuck-up, dumbass hanyou…" I swore to myself, but suddenly a peasant came up to us.

"Excuse me, but would any of you know where I can hire a good Taijiya?"

Bingo.

My mom and I leapt to our feet in an instant. "Consider yourself lucky, sir." My mom said easily. "We're some of the best Taijiyas in all of Japan, and we just happen to be passing through."

So we got ourselves a job, a room for the night, and a good dinner. Across the dinner table, I smirked at Inuyasha and mouthed, 'Who got us a room, dogboy?' He snarled at me and dove into the ramen.

The job was for the next day at noon. We were all suited up and ready to go. The man had told us that the demon attacked every day around noon, and always caused at least one casualty. It had been going on for a week now, and they had finally decided to hire a Taijiya. We were all ready for battle, and I was tuning out my emotions. I didn't need to be getting all depressed about my mom and dad now. There were demons to kill.

But at first I didn't even see anything. There was a thin fog over the ground, but I didn't really think anything of it. But my mom handed me a gas mask and put one on herself, and when she caught my eye, she nodded. Okay. There was a demon. The fog thickened until even Kirara was coughing, and then slowly a young man walked forward.

I was entranced. He was sex-hay!

He had thick black hair in a long ponytail, black eyes, and very expensive clothes. While everyone else in the group was ready for battle, I was just staring at him. Wow. Demons were _really hot. _Why the hell hadn't anyone told me?

(I would like to point out to you all that I was still a novice Taijiya, and this was kind of my first time fighting a demon in human form. It wasn't my fault.)

He looked us over, and then said sweetly, "Would you be Inuyasha?"

"Depends on who's asking." He snapped, drawing Tetsusaiga. "Who are you and why have you been tormenting this village?"

He smiled and said, "So I can fight weakling Taijiyas and hanyous like you."

"Say WHAT!" I barked.

"DAMN YOU!" Inuyasha roared.

My mom didn't say anything – just aimed Hiraikotsu at him and threw it with every ounce of strength she had. Which was a lot.

But in one instant, the fog cleared, the demon's body crumbled to the ground, and in its place rose a terrifying bear demon, with black eyes and teeth stained red with blood. I gasped as Hiraikotsu simply brushed against his skin and then flew back to my mother. Kagome ran forward, firing her arrows, and Inuyasha screamed, "WIND SCAR!" The battle began.

By our standards, it was relatively easy. Bear demons aren't particularly hard, and there's a lot of them, so we'd had a lot of practice. I assumed we could take care of him with just a Wind Scar and one of Kagome's arrows, but we did have to work a little harder than that. My mother and Shippou kept him distracted while Miroku launched a sutra at his heart. I saw my opportunity, drew my sword and sprinted forward. I held my katana aloft, just ready to stab it into the sutra and pierce the demon's heart, and so win the battle, when I felt my katana drop to the ground and something snatch me as I was running. A paw.

The bear had grabbed me in its paw just as I was about to attack him. _Oh, _I thought, _this is even better. _I smiled at him, looking deep into the bear's black eyes, and reached over to grab the beads on my right hand, pull them off and suck this demon into the Kazaana.

But when I groped around on my hand and didn't feel any beads, my heart dropped.

_I didn't have the Kazaana anymore._

_Oh, shit._

I was speechless, my heart frozen, realizing I was completely defenseless. The bear smiled at me, a fearsome smile, showing all his miserable, blood-stained teeth, and growled,

"You'll do nicely, girl."

And that's when he turned tail and started to sprint out of the clearing, still holding me.

"MAMA!" I screamed desperately, tears pouring down my face. "MAAA-MAAA!"

I saw her and my dad leap up onto Kirara and start to follow me, but the bear was going too fast. She was disappearing slowly, and with it, I felt like my world was disappearing too. I was being taken hostage by a demon – what was going to happen to me now!

"_MAMA!"_ I screamed as loud as I possibly could.

The bear looked at me and smiled. "No use yelling, girl. There's nothing they can do now."

I was crying now, really crying, my body shaking and trembling, and I'd never felt so helpless in my life. A word floated back to me –

"_Kaza!"_

It was my mother, but she couldn't do anything to help me now.

**Well, Kaza deserved it. She's been pissing me off lately. Anyway, thank you so much all of you that reviewed and told me what you wanted, and i hope i can live up to your standards! Please review, Arigatou! And no, this is not going to be a typical capture twist - someone very important is going to enter the scene very soon...ok, i'm done being clairvoyant. REVIEW!**


	15. Lost Again

Chapter 16 – Lost - Again

**Wow! A chapter that doesn't start with Kaza's POV! This chapter is kind of off my usual style, because it alternates between third-person and Kaza's POV. It kind of jumps between people, too, but anytime you see Kaza's POV at the start of the section you may of course assume it's from her perspective. Anyway, it's amazing how much I am like my characters now. I've been having alot of shoulder and knee problems because of swimming recently, so I was walking home from practice and rotating my shoulder, and suddenly I thought - _Wow, it's just like Kaza!_ Except of course, Kaza got her injury from being stabbed by Naraku, and I got mine from over-rotating on my freestyle 500-meter, but we're not gonna go there. :) Sorry for talking - read, and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: When I own Inuyasha, I'll let ya'll know.**

"Kaza! _KAAA-ZAAAH!" _Sango's voice pierced the still air, high up in the sky on Kirara. She looked esperately at the demon carrying her away, and could still hear her frantic cry suspended in the air – "_Mama!_"

"Please, Kirara, go faster!" She urged, but she knew it was no use. Kirara was flying as fast as she possible could, and already the demon was out of sight. Miroku was holding her hands tightly as she started to cry.

"KAZA!" She shrieked. "That bastard of a demon has my DAUGHTER!" And she turned around and leaned into Miroku, sobbing. "I just got you back, I can't lose Kaza too…not her too…"

Miroku held her and whispered, "We'll get her back, Sango, I promise."

She smiled and looked up with blood shot eyes. "You sound…_sniff_ just like her."

He just grinned, but then Inuyasha, with Kagome and Shippou on his back, bounded up into the air. "Come on!" He yelled. "We have to follow before they get too far away!"

Sango nodded and they flew off.

Sango anxiously scanned the horizon, looking for any sign, any clue of where he could have taken Kaza. She saw it now – that was no ordinary bear demon. Bear demons shouldn't have had the mental capacity to take a young girl hostage. No, he'd been some cunning other form of demon, and she realized, he'd probably had a jewel shard.

And he'd probably been planning to kidnap Kaza from the start.

"There!" Kagome suddenly pointed. "Kouga, down there!"

"Yeah, I smell him." Inuyasha grunted. "We're going down." Kirara swooped down just as Inuyasha touched ground and Kouga sprinted in front of him.

"Hey, mutt." He growled. "Sup?"

"Look, Kouga, we're on urgent business." Inuyasha panted as Kirara, Sango and Miroku flew down. "A bear demon kidnapped Kaza. You seen her?"

"Kaza? The girl?" He said, frowning, and then saw Miroku and Sango. "Oh. Hey, Miroku, Sango. Long time, no see. You defeated Naraku?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Kouga, have you or have you not seen my daughter?" Miroku said coolly.

"No, but I've heard rumors." He said. "About a bear demon that kidnaps young girls. It's strange behavior for a bear demon, but they say it's got a Sacred Jewel Shard, one of the few left in all of Japan."

_As I suspected, _Sango thought. _A jewel shard. This complicates things._

"A couple of village girls were captured a month ago and then ransomed off. He probably saw Kaza and thought it would be a good opportunity to get some extra money, or else demonic powers, since she was with one of the most famous traveling groups in all of Japan."

"Dumbass of a bear demon." Sango growled. "She killed Naraku, some bear demon shouldn't be a problem, even if it has a jewel shard. We just have to find her and help her get out."

"_She_ defeated Naraku? The girl?" Kouga said. "Oh, wow. That's some very interesting news. Inuyasha, you've gotten weak if some little girl could kill Naraku and you couldn't."

"How about a showdown, you mangy wolf, and then we'll see if I've gotten weak." Inuyasha snarled, grabbing Tetsusaiga, but then Kagome said calmly, "Sit, boy." As Inuyasha slammed to the ground, she said to Kouga, "Thanks for all the help. If you do find the bear or Kaza, well – "

"You want me to help the girl?" He said with a smile. "I suppose so, if you ask me to, Kagome. It's been pretty boring around here lately. Later, dogface." He yelled, and then vanished in a whirlwind.

As Inuyasha picked himself off the ground, grumbling, Shippou peered into the horizon. "I can't smell anything. Where are we going to find her?"

"The hills." Sango said. "That's where bear demons usually like to make their dens."

"But there's hundreds of hills, and he could be in any one of them!" Shippou protested.

"Then let's get started." Miroku said, already climbing on Kirara. They quickly took off – the hills where a good day or so away. And they knew they needed to cover some ground. Miroku leaned over and whispered to Sango, "Are you worried about her?"

She nodded. "She left her sword with us, she doesn't have any weapons at all. She doesn't even have the Kazaana now. I just pray she'll be okay – she's my only daughter, my life."

"Sango, she's strong! She can handle herself better than most adults. Kaza's a smart girl, she can do it." He said, trying to be reassuring. Inwardly, Miroku was just as nervous as Sango was. His hands were shaking in hers, but both of them pretended not to notice. He'd been so proud of his daughter this past week – how strong she was, how resilient, how she'd managed to take on Naraku and only come out with a wounded shoulder. He was hurting just as much as Sango – he'd just met his daughter, he didn't want to lose her again. But he tried to be strong, for Sango. Unfortunately, she turned her bloodshot eyes to him and pointed out what he'd been trying to deny, the fact he didn't want to face.

"But she's not an adult." She whispered. "Kaza's a little girl, and when she was a child, the one thing she was scared of, the one thing that haunted her dreams, was always getting kidnapped by a demon."

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

**Kaza's POV**

I tried to be strong as I saw my mom, my dad, all the people I'd ever cared about, disappear. As he kept running, long, looping strides that covered miles in minutes, I tried to stay strong. I wasn't going to be caught weak in front of this demon. I couldn't do it, I couldn't be weak. The night darkened till the sky was the color of ink, and a couple of milky stars fluttered overhead. I looked up at them and prayed I could get out of here. I'd always been scared of getting kidnapped by a demon – it always was the one thing that could send me into hysterical tears. Now it was really happening, just when I thought I could have a happy ending.

When we got to a cave, set deep into the side of a hill, he chucked me in, and I hit the cold floor hard. He turned back into a human, said a spell over the mouth of the cave, and I could see a barrier flicker up. He smiled at me and just walked away, and that's when I cried.

That's when I curled up and sobbed, the cold dirt floor dirtying my already filthy yukata, my hair greasy and thick over my face, tears leaving streaks on my face. I sobbed like a little girl. I couldn't be strong anymore. I didn't care. Nobody cared anymore.

That's when I realized there are no such things as happy endings.

The night was dark, lonely and cold. I was terrified of what might lie in the back of that cave, and so I stayed as close to the opening as I could, looking desperately at the few stars I could see. What was the big deal about stars? I didn't see a damn thing special about them. They sure didn't give me any hope. I rubbed my face with the sleeve of my yukata and tried to curl up, and keep some body heat circulating. I was hungry, thirsty, and generally having the shittiest day of my life.

In the middle of the night, I woke up and leaned against the barrier, pushing feebly to try and get out. It wasn't giving. I couldn't help but smile as I suddenly remembered Kanna's prediction – the Daughter of the Wind. Hmph.

"What about your Daughter of the Wind, now, eh, witch?" I grumbled to myself. I suddenly stood up, leaning against the barrier, and screamed with all my might, "KANNA! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU TALKING ABOUT? WHAT'S HAPPENED TO YOUR DAUGHTER OF THE WIND NOW? WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HAPPY ENDING? KANNA, WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?"

I closed my eyes and fell back against the ground, and everything went pitch-black.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

"Kagura." Kanna whispered. Kagura pressed a finger to her lips. She'd heard it too. The night had been amazingly still when suddenly a girl's frantic screams had pierced the air. "KANNA! WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?" They went silent, and Kagura grumbled and tilted the feather towards the sound.

"Who was that?" She muttered. "Should we check it out?"

"Kaza." Kanna whispered, clutching her mirror. Kagura looked back and saw the mirror reflecting that girl – Miroku and Sango's daughter, the one who'd killed Naraku – lying sprawled on the floor of a cave. She looked half-dead.

"I wonder what happened." She said thoughtfully.

"We have to find her." Kanna said. Her black eyes were more bright then Kagura had seen in months. "She can't die yet."

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

"Huh, it's Kaza." Kouga said. He hadn't expected the girl to turn up this soon, but whatever. If he managed to get her out before Inuyasha could, then kudos for him. He wasn't exactly hoping that Kagome would leave Inuyasha for him – they were married, for God's sakes – but all the same, he made a promise, and wolves never broke their promises.

He barked, and wolves raced out of the trees, gathering around him, panting, awaiting orders. Kouga looked at them, and then looked towards the sound of the screams.

"Be ready to fight!" He yelled. "We're going after Kaza!"

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

**Kaza's POV**

And they say mornings are beautiful. I woke up, my whole body sore, and just saw a crimson red sunrise peeking over the top of the trees. It just made me even more depressed, and I bit my lip as my stomach grumbled. Finally I got up off the ground and started to look around. The best way to cure an empty stomach is distraction, so I decided to find a way to get out of the cave.

With no weapons.

And no Kazaana.

And wearing my yukata.

Damn it to hell.

Within five minutes, I was back at the front of the cave, sobbing my eyes out. I'd ran the entire length of the cave, pounded on the walls, looked at the height of the ceiling, checked for cracks, every logical thing I could do in that situation, but nothing yielding. There was no way in hell I was going to get out of there, and it made me feel like the most miserable failure in the world.

The only thing I could do was sit at the mouth of the cave, soaking up the sunlight, biting my lip or gnawing on the sleeve of my yukata for some comfort, I was just that hungry. I hadn't had any food since lunch of the previous day, and I wasn't used to going without Kagome's ramen. (Mmm…ramen…)

So I didn't even notice when the young man walked past the mouth of the cave.

He didn't notice me either, but then suddenly did a double-take to look back at me. He had thick, long hair tied up in a ponytail, soft eyes, and was wearing a peasant's outfit. I was glad when he doubled back to look at me. I was a teenage girl trapped in a friggin' cave. Seriously, people, how much weirder can you get?

He sat down to look at me and said slowly, "What are you doing?"

"What, you think I _want _to be here?" I scoffed, wiping my nose. My tone softened. "I was taken captive by some bear demon and left here, and I don't know where he went."

"Oh, no. That's awful. How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Oh, Kami. Would you like some food?"

I sighed. "I would _love_ some food, but I don't think you can get through the barrier." He sighed and sat down. I kind of panicked – why was he just sitting here and talking to me? It was weird – I thought that if you found a teenage girl alone in a cave, you'd either give her food and walk away, or else you'd just keep walking. He actually seemed like he wanted to chat.

"Why did the bear want to capture you?"

"Don't ask me!" I said. "It was a job, me and my mom were hired to kill him, but I let him get me and he captured me and took me here."

Suddenly he perked up. "You say you were hired to kill him?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm a Taijiya. A crappy one, but…" I trailed off. He looked genuinely interested.

"But how could you be a Taijiya? We were the only surviving Taijiyas in all of Japan…" He should thoughtfully.

"Who?"

"My sister and I."

"I thought there were a lot of Taijiyas all over Japan."

"There used to be, but we were all destroyed by Naraku. My sister and I were the only ones to make it out alive."

I sat back in silence. Why hadn't my mom ever told me this? I'd always assumed Taijiyas were numerous over the country, and I was just the only one in that province. Now it turns out there were only two left? And who was this guy's sister to be one of only two Taijiyas to survive?

**(A/N: Isn't she retarded? God, Kaza, how stupid can you get? Oh well, she's starving, we can't blame her. Sorry, just had to say that.)**

"So you're a Taijiya? What was your favorite weapon?" He asked politely. I was caught off guard.

"Oh…um, I never really had a weapon. I was pretty good with my katana, but I really used my wind tunnel as a weapon."

His eyes flashed. "Wind tunnel?"

"Yeah. It was a curse from Naraku. There was a wind tunnel on my right hand that would suck up anything it came across."

I expected him to be surprised, or disturbed, but the only thing he did was murmur, "Miroku."

I jumped up. "What? How did you know him?"

He smiled. "Let's call him an old family friend. I'm sorry to hear that he died. Did you know him personally?"

"Died?" I said, my entire body going rigid. "No, he didn't die! What are you talking about?"

"Well, the Kazaana gets passed onto his child after he dies, right? And you'd have to have been his child to get the Kazaana, right? Did he finally get a child from one of those whores he always hung around with?" He said easily.

I stepped back. "Look, we need to get a few things straight. He's _not dead._ And I am NOT some love child – " And then it hit me – I _was_ his love child. He and my mom were never married. I sighed and sat back down. "Well, umm…"

"You were his love child, weren't you?" He said gently.

"You got it." I grunted. "I guess he _was_ a womanizer. But he's not dead, okay? He's fine. I saw him yesterday, he's okay."

"But then how did you get the Kazaana?"

"He vanished for fifteen years – it's a complicated story, okay? Naraku's dead, I killed him, Dad's back, the Kazaana's gone, it's all good."

"Except that you're stuck in a bear demon's cave with no food, no water, and no one to talk to but me."

"Well, thank you for pointing out the obvious." I said coldly. All the same, he was smiling, lighting up his still youthful face, and he was making me feel a lot better. "I guess we're going to be here a while. My name's Kaza, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Kaza. My name's Kohaku."

**Just in case there was any confusion. Which, if there was, I will personally murder you. And isn't Kaza retarded? Seriously, both of them are completely skirting around the issue. But anyway, I think this was a random chapter, but I liked it. I went through a million versions before I finally settled on this one – (Shisha, you were right, but don't kill Neferius!) I think most of you saw this coming, but all the same, it is a very touchy issue. Yes, he is freed from Naraku's control, that's why he's so brotherly. I always imagined him as being very sweet when he wasn't a mindless puppet. Anyway, please review – we're up to seventy! I love you guys!**


	16. Where the Roads Meet

Chapter 17 – Where the Roads Meet

**Wow, it's been forever since I last updated, huh? Anyway, I don't own Inuyasha, and this chapter will be kind of like the last one. Read!**

Kagura flew over the tops of the trees, the bottom of her kimono just brushing the tops of the uppermost leaves, deep in thought. Normally being this high in the air, coasting on powerful wind currents, calmed her and made her think easier, but today she was confused and just about spitting fire about it.

They were going after that girl – Kaza, was her name – the daughter of the monk Miroku and Kohaku's older sister. Kagura knew she owed the girl – by some freakish stroke of luck, a fifteen-year-old girl had killed Naraku and gave freedom back to her, Kanna and Kohaku. Though she still didn't see why they had to go rescue her. It was none of her business – it was Inuyasha's, and she still hated that bastard mutt. But Kanna had taken a fancy to that girl, and that was why they were spending a perfectly good day rescuing a mortal girl – the daughter and traveling companion of their mortal enemies – from some dumbass of a bear demon she should have been able to take care of by herself.

Kagura was not happy.

"How much farther, Kanna?"

"Look for the winds." Kanna whispered, her white hair billowing around her pale face. "That's where she is."

_Damn,_ Kagura thought angrily, _can you please give me normal directions for once?_ But she could see a small whirlwind up ahead, at a small, sheltered cliff. She angled the feather towards it.

_Time to end this business, _she thought.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

The wolves were howling loud enough to wake the Shinictai, and Kouga had to take a deep breath and count to ten to make sure he didn't scream at them. They were hot on the trail of the bear demon that had kidnapped Kaza, but they had been for the past two hours. Normally these demons were slow and stupid, but apparently this one wasn't, and it was pissing Kouga off.

He was only doing it for Kagome – the girl didn't really matter to him, but she had done him a favor by killing off Naraku. Kouga had wanted to do it himself, but you know, if you can get some fifteen-year-old girl to do it for you, what the hell?

One of the wolves came up to him, panting and moaning, and Kouga listened intently. He'd gotten a trail – she was in the hills.

"Which one?" Kouga asked. "Can you tell which hill?" The wolf just shook its head.

"Aw, damn it." He grunted under his breath. "This'll take forever. Why the hell are we going after some girl anyway?"

But then he heard roars, and his nose pricked as an explosion of scents reached him. He sprinted out of the clearing, going faster and faster until he was in his whirlwind of leaves. His feet weren't even touching the ground. The smell of bear was there, thick and pungent, and he had to reach Kaza before the bear did.

He'd be letting Kagome down if he didn't – she loved that girl.

And he wasn't the kind of guy to let the girl who killed Naraku die. She wouldn't be any good to him dead.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

**Kaza's POV**

"Do you know any way to get out of this dump?" I asked Kohaku, standing up and pushing against the barrier. "This isn't coming down. I have to find another way."

"What supplies do you have?"

"Um, lemme think about that – NOTHING. Me and my brains, that's about it. You?"

"I have a sword." He said slowly. "Food. Extra change of clothes. A couple candles. My sickle. A canteen of water."

"Damn, you are prepared." I said. "If only there was a way to get those to me, I could find somewhere to get out."

"Have you tried pushing things through the barrier?"

"Of course! It doesn't let anything through." I sighed, my hope deteriorating, and flopped back down. As I did, the shoulder of my yukata slid down, and without even thinking, I moved to push it back it back up. But Kohaku suddenly said, "Where did you get that scar?"

I looked down. Oh. It was _that _shoulder. There was finally a scar, thick and raised, a red-brown color that was different from the rest of the skin.

"This?" I smiled and ran my fingers along it. "When we were fighting, Naraku managed to stab me here. It's been healing pretty well, considering how deep it went into the skin."

He didn't say anything, then reached up and pulled down the shoulders of his shirt. I almost freaked out for a second – _Oh my God, what are you doing! _– but when he slid his shirt down, I only saw his chest for a second before he turned around and showed me his back.

And I thought _I_ had it bad. He had scars all over his back – deep ones, thin ones, long ones, ones that barely looked as if they'd gotten _any_ medical attention. But they were all centered around a flicker, embedded deep in his back, that I realized was a jewel shard. I gasped.

"Oh my God, what happened?"

"Naraku." He said simply. "It's the jewel shard that keeps me alive, but it's also one of about three jewel shards left in all of Japan. So over the years, I've been under attack a lot by demons trying to get this out."

"But why do you have a jewel shard in the first place?" I said suspiciously.

He pulled his shirt back on and turned around. "Let's just say it wasn't put there by my choice." Kohaku said softly. "You're not the only one who's been cursed by Naraku."

Before I could figure out this statement, there was a crashing and roaring, and all the surrounding trees were thrown into the air as the bear demon surged into the clearing.

I know what you're all thinking. _Okay, here we go. Now is when Kaza will scream her fool head off and get into more trouble, and someone else is going to have to rescue her. Come on, she's done it a million times!_

Hell no, not this time. In one split second – maybe it was because of Kohaku standing there, seeming to urge me on – that I decided that I wasn't going to be the damsel in distress anymore. I'd been stabbed, beaten around and starved because of it, and that was the reason I was in this damn cave in the first place. Like Inuyasha said, I was a Taijiya, now was the time to prove it.

And even if I wasn't the Daughter of the Wind, like Kanna said, it sure did sound cool, and it gave me a little confidence as I stood up and roared at the bear demon,

"YOU SON OF A BITCH, LET ME OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Yeah, wasn't making too much of an impact, right?

But then Kagura swooped forward in a rush of winds, and Kouga sprinted into the clearing with a howling pack of wolves at his tail. Kohaku leapt to his feet, pulling out a sickle from the back of his belt, the bear demon roared and looked around, confused as to who to attack, and suddenly I saw a flicker of light at the top of the cave that I hadn't noticed before. An opening.

Now we're talking.

"Kohaku!" I gasped. "There's an opening at the top of the cave! Can you get me out?"

He nodded and scampered around. I couldn't see anything, so I focused on the battle in front of me.

Apparently I had some very powerful allies. I didn't know why, but Kouga and Kagura both seemed to be fighting for me. While Kagura attacked him with her fan – all the while screaming, "Dance of Blades!" – Kouga and the wolves were running around his feet, trying to knock him off his feet. I grinned. I had no idea people liked me this much, and I wasn't about to complain.

Then I looked up and saw Kanna sitting on the feather with Kagura. Her black eyes met mine, and she turned the mirror towards me. Even from the great distance separating us, I could see that creepy image of me, with the winds whipping my hair around, and my heart quickened. I closed my eyes and turned around – I didn't want to think about that, not when we were in the heat of battle as it was.

But I was spared the thought as Kohaku's boot burst through the top of the cave, showering me in dust, and his hand reached down. I grasped it and he heaved me out into the bright sun. I stretched a little and looked down at the rock.

"I thought that'd take a little longer." I said. "You cut through solid rock."

He smiled. "Not exactly." He reached down and pressed in the rock – it left an imprint where his finger had been. "This is a gypsum deposit – the softest mineral there is. All I had to do was a cut it a little and from there I could just push through."

I grinned, even as the battle was going on right in front of me. "Thank you. And Kohaku?"

"Yeah?"

"Could I use your sword?"

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

"I can't find her scent." Inuyasha said to Sango. "I'm sorry, but I seriously can't. The damn bear smell is everywhere, and she never really had a scent to start with, so…"

"I know." Sango sighed, dipping the canteen into the river and watching as the water slowly filled it. "Some demon told me once when she was a baby that she didn't have a scent because she was surrounded by the wind so much it just erased her human scent and molded with her. It's the same way as that Kagura and Kanna don't have a scent."

"Well, it certainly doesn't help our cause." Miroku said, walking up. He looked down and saw worry in Sango's brown eyes, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "At least we have Kouga's scent to follow."

"We're only following that damn wolf's scent when we've got nothing left." Inuyasha growled. "I won't be following him around. We should be able to find Kaza by ourselves. I don't know why he's helping in the first place."

"It could come in handy." Kagome chimed in. "Come on, we should get moving."

Sango straightened up, feeling the crack of her knees and back, and sighed again. She needed to find Kaza fast – not just for her daughter's sake, but for her's. Sango knew she was a little old to be chasing all over Japan, especially just coming out of retirement after fifteen years. She was getting infuriated – they'd just found and rescued Miroku, and then Kaza had to be taken captive too! She knew she wasn't the only one – Inuyasha had been snappier than usual and Kagome had been very loose with the 's-word' in the past day or so.

She and Miroku walked over and she offered out a couple little fish to Kirara, who scarfed them up in a second. Sango smiled and rubbed her mane. "I'm sorry I don't have more to give you." She said softly. "But we don't have very much ourselves. Can you keep going?"

Kirara growled, and Sango and Miroku hopped on. Kagome and Shippou clambered onto Inuyasha and they took to the skies.

After another hour, the hills were getting closer, and Sango was ready to piss herself with anxiety. She could see disturbance building up like a storm in the forests around the hills, like winds converging in a huge tropical hurricane. Kouga was just ahead of them, as Inuyasha's nose told them, and she could see a tiny feather off in the distance – Kagura.

And in it all, Inuyasha said there was the smell of the wind, and there was only one human in the world with that scent.

Sango loosened Hiraikotsu in its leather strap, and Miroku grasped her hand. She smiled at him, and there was silent communication between them – the fight was coming up. The whole group knew it. Kagome was fitting an arrow to the string, Shippou had his little fists clenched, and Inuyasha looked angrier than she'd ever seen him.

"Ready, Sango?" He grunted. Sango glared at him.

"She's my daughter." She growled. "I'll take whatever that bear sends at me and send him straight to hell." Miroku chuckled and squeezed her hands.

Kagome gasped, and Shippou said, "What?"

"I sense the demon – I sense his jewel shard!" She said. "Inuyasha, go towards that overhanging, that little cave!"

"Got it." He said, and they turned towards the cave, and then she added,

"There's something else…something I haven't felt in a while…"

"What?"

"There's another person there, another person with a jewel shard…" Her brown eyes widened, and she whispered,

"Someone with a jewel shard in their back."

Sango's heart jolted. Her mind swam. She couldn't believe it.

But she knew it was Kohaku.

**I know it's a bit of an unsatisfactory ending to one of the most unsatisfactory chapters in the story, but it took me forever to figure out how to do this chapter. I had like fifteen different versions and I kept jumping between them, so, yeah…well, all the drama's going to wrap up in the next two chapters. In case you couldn't tell, the chapter title, Where the Roads Meet, is referring to how the three different traveling parties – Kouga, Kagura and Inuyasha – will all finally meet up at the cave with Kaza, and of course, because Kohaku is involved, there will be a lot of drama. But whatever – I need to go to bed. My ever-growing list of swimming injuries continues, and I need to go to bed early. By the end of practice yesterday, I had hyper-extended both shoulders, both knees, and my right hip. Yeah. True tales of swimming horror. Please review! Arigatou!**


	17. Secrets, Lies and Truths

**Yay! A night when I am unencumbered by swimming injuries and I actually have time to update! Let's get the disclaimer out of the way so ya'll can read –**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, I'd be rich. That's all the proof you need.**

Chapter 18 – Secrets, Lies and Truths

The metal of Kohaku's katana sliced into the thick skin on the bear's thigh like it was nothing, and as he roared and howled, I grinned easily. Battle felt so good. I'd missed fighting. His blood was already staining my hands and my yukata, which was by now repulsive. You couldn't even see the pattern on it anymore, it was that dirty. I didn't care. I pulled out the sword, straining my muscles, and then ran around to his belly and stabbed that. He started to thrash, and smacked me right in the gut. I stammered back, gasping, as Kohaku grabbed me and supported me. Kouga and Kagura were already swooping back in to battle him.

"I should never have lent you that sword." Kohaku said, short of breath, as he helped me to my feet. "You're a maniac with that thing."

I smiled evilly. "Ahh, I love it when people find out for the first time that I'm a psycho. It makes for a great conversation."

He cocked an eyebrow at me, and then wiped the blood off the blade of his sickle. "Well, if you're so psycho, would you like to go in for another round against this bear demon?"

"I most certainly would." I sprinted back into the battle. While Kohaku went down to distract him, I screamed up at Kagura,

"Give me a lift! I want to get to his head!"

She looked offended as she flew down on the feather to get me, but all the same she gave me her hand and jerked me up onto the feather. I didn't know where Kanna was, but she wasn't there anymore. We flew quickly over the demon, and nodding my thanks, I leapt down, the wind streaming through my hair.

He had thick fur, so I was able to grab a tuft of it and hold on as I stabbed random places. It seriously ticked him off, as he snapped and roared. You see the damage a fifteen-year-old girl with a sword can do? I guess this was why my mom never really let me play with sharp objects when I was a baby.

All in all, it was a good fight. I loved the thrill of battle, I loved feeling his blood over my skin, I was enthralled with being able to stab and cut with a sword again. Kohaku and Kagura were sending each other weird looks throughout the whole battle, but I wasn't worried about it. Kohaku, Kouga and Kagura were the best allies a girl could have, and it looked like we were going to beat him when –

My parents came back.

Sound familiar, those of you who go to late-night parties? Yeah, I thought so.

The bear had managed to knock me off his back when I saw Kirara flying towards me faster than I'd ever seen her go. As I quickly got to my feet, I could hear my mom screaming my name as loud as she could, and before I could even think about it, she was off Kirara and running towards me, and I was half-laughing, half-crying when she finally hugged me. She was rocking me back and forth, stroking my hair like she always did, and she said,

"I'm never going to lose you again, baby."

"I'm okay." I whispered, laughing. "I'm okay, I promise. Just a little hungry."

My dad came up next, and he didn't even say anything, just folded me in his arms. I sighed. It was okay. Everything was going to be okay.

God, I was a Royal Dumbass.

Because as I pulled myself apart from my dad, I saw my mom staring at Kohaku, and she whispered, "Oh, my God, Kohaku."

"You know him?" I said indignantly. Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippou had come up and were watching the conversation intently, all of us oblivious to the battle Kouga and Kagura were still fighting.

"_You _know him?" She asked me. But all I saw was that Kohaku had turned to me with surprise and sadness written all over his face, and he said softly,

"Kaza, I knew your father was Miroku…but I didn't know Sango was your mother."

"Yeah, and?" I pouted. Why were they beating around the bush?

"Kaza," Kohaku said, "Sango's my sister. _We_ were the only two Taijiyas to survive."

It felt like my whole body had frozen. I realized in an instant what an idiot I was. Why didn't I see it? The similarities between the two of them…but all the same, I felt so miserably betrayed. I turned to my mom and snarled,

"You had a _brother_ and you never told me? You were one of only two Taijiyas in all of Japan to survive and _you never told me_? What the hell, Mama?"

"Yes, well, there's a different side of the story." She snapped, turning to her brother. "When did you get out from under Naraku's control? Or was this just another plot, and this time it was to steal my daughter?"

_Holy shit._

"Oh my God." I looked at both of them. "What the hell is up with this? You've been under Naraku's control? So _he_ was the one that put the Jewel Shard in your back?" Then I got it. "You served under him, didn't you? You were one of his minions, just like Kagura and Kanna, weren't you?"

"You have to understand, Kaza," He said, "Naraku saved my life with the jewel shard. He erased my memory – I had to serve under him. I didn't remember anything. It's only recently, when he died, that I got my memories back and was able to get my freedom. It wasn't my choice."

"You have me to thank for that." I scowled. "I was the one that killed Naraku."

"_You _killed him?"

"Agghh!" I yelled, now whipping around to face my dad. "Do you have any hidden relatives you'd like to tell me about?" I went to Kagome. "Are you a half-demon, too? And are you really from another country? Damn it, who here is telling the truth! Please, I would really like to know! Give me my sword." I seized my sword from the ground and ran out to the battlefield, calling over my shoulder,

"I'm going to fight, cause that's the only thing in my life that I know is _true_ right now!"

As I sprinted out to where Kagura and the bear were fighting, Kouga ran up alongside me and grunted, "Get on." Surprised, I jumped onto his back and he sped up as we ran.

"What the hell happened back there?" He said gruffly.

"Well apparently, like, my whole life has been one big lie. I had an uncle I didn't know about who was under Naraku's control and was probably planning a plot on my life, to boot. Oh, and my mom was only one of two Taijyas in the entire country who survived an attack from Naraku, and I never knew about it. I just wanna kill someone."

"You're in luck." He said, coming up to the battle, "cause here's a demon I would really like killed right now."

"Gladly." I said, wiping the blood off my sword. "Can you get me to his chest? I'll just stab him in the heart and we'll get this over with."

He didn't say anything, just kept going even faster. We were only about 50 yards away now, and as we got even closer, the wind whistled in my ears, and I drew back my katana, ready to kill.

"You've got one shot!" Kouga barked hoarsely, and then in one motion, he seized the front of my kimono, hauled me off his back, still running, and as he got so close that I could see the demon's belly, he roared, angled his body upward and CHUCKED me – I'm serious, he just threw me – straight at the demon's heart.

This time, I really did scream. What would any of you have done?

But my sword was steadfast, I was flying at a perfect angle, I could see the whites of his eyes.

I was right there, I could just _feel _his demon aura emanating off his thick fur.

Then he opened his mouth. I could see a strange glow in the back of his throat, and then it came.

A huge, blazing red fireball of energy shot itself out of his mouth, followed by a streaming tail, like a comet, and it smacked me with the force of a hammer.

My whole body went numb in an instant as it crashed into my entire body with a horrendous clap, and I couldn't feel my body anymore. The whole world came down to red, shades of red, that was all I saw, all I heard, all I smelt, and all I could feel. After the red came black, and that was even worse. There was nothing more – just thick, dark, depths of black, and I was drowning in them.

I don't know how long I was unconscious, how long I was just swimming in that sea of black, but eventually, there was grey. And from the grey I managed to peel open my eyes and find myself in brown. Sharp, crystal clear brown.

That brown was the brown of my mother's eyes, peering deep into my own.

"Kaza." She whispered. I saw that she was holding me, and we were still in the middle of the battle. "You okay, baby?"

"Black." I struggled to say. "Red. Grey. All that energy. I was drowning."

"I know, Kaza." She said tiredly. I saw that there was a line of blood trickling down her arm and she looked exhausted. "Inuyasha, Miroku and Kouga were hit, too. Kagome, Kagura and I are still fighting. But we're losing pretty bad. We didn't know he had this ability, and it's all we can do just to dodge them."

"I'll help." I said immediately. I was still holding my sword, and I used it as stability as I levered myself to a sitting position. She looked worried.

"No way, Kaza, you can't fight like that!"

"Yes, I can!" I snapped. Something was building up inside me – a storm, a tempest, roiling and tumbling around in my soul. "I have to!" I looked at the bear demon, at Kagome, Kagura and Shippou still bravely resisting, and I said,

"You don't get it, Mama. I'm the Daughter of the Wind. The only one who even has a chance of defeating him is me."

**

* * *

Ha! I finally updated! Go, me! God, it takes me forever! But yes, I know you're probably tearing out your hair in frustration, but I promise that the climax is the next chapter. Promise. Seriously. Now, review and I promise to put up a good chapter very, very soon! 80 reviews! You guys rock hardcore! Arigatou!**


	18. The Daughter of the Wind

**Oh my God – Pegelia VonBorrador actually updates. One of the seven signs of the apocalypse is upon us. She doesn't own Inuyasha, by the way. READ!**

Chapter 19 – The Daughter of the Wind

"What do you mean?" My mom whispered, her eyes wide.

I took my time responding. It was like I could take as much time as I wanted, because at that moment, it was like the world was waiting with its breath held for me, and I could keep it waiting for a bit longer. Leaning heavily on my katana, I raised myself up, feeling the crack of my sore joints. I looked out at the battle, as Kagome raised her bow and fired an arrow just as Kagura swooped down to attack. Kohaku had vanished somewhere, I didn't know where. My dad, Inuyasha and Kouga were out cold. I looked sideways at my mom and said softly,

"It's not that you and Dad and Inuyasha are bad fighters. I know that any of you could take this bear demon right now if you wanted. You're strong enough. But even though we've got the whole group, plus Kouga, Kagura and Kohaku fighting against him, he's not dead. And you know as well as I do that it's not just because he's got a jewel shard."

She was looking solemnly at me, like I was a stranger or something. The storm was building up inside me until I could feel it in my veins. I took a deep breath and said,

"He's not an ordinary bear demon – not to me. The fact that Kohaku's here, that I got captured, that Kagura and Kanna showed up – it's all leading to Naraku. I think you know as well as I do that this is Naraku's last stunt. I don't know how, I don't know why, but this is Naraku. This is Naraku's last form trying to take us down. Trying to take _me _down."

"Then what else can we do but fight?" She whispered.

"Nothing." I said, reaching back and pulling out the ribbon that held my long brown hair in a ponytail. It flowed down my back, tickling my cheeks. "Fight is all we can do. But you guys have done enough; you've done your part. It's _me_ who's got to do this. I was the one who killed him before, I'm the only one that can do it now."

For a moment it looked like she was going to hold me back, or say that I was too young.

"Trust me, Mama." I whispered, looking right at her. "I can do this. I _have_ to do this."

She looked deep into my eyes and nodded.

Holding my sword, I walked out onto the battlefield. Behind me, my mom rode out on Kirara, yelling, "Kagome, Kagura, come back! Fall back!" They looked wildly confused, but they did it.

I can't say I was nervous as I walked out there and looked up at the demon. The wild tempest in my soul was coming to a boiling point and it overrided any other emotions I might have had. The bear was still, watching me walk up. I barely even reached his thigh.

I plunged my sword into the ground and then looked right up at him. In his dark, blood red eyes, in just a second, I saw a glimmer of Naraku. Then he growled,

"You think you can defeat me again, Kaza?"

"Hell yes." I snarled. "Someone needs to put you in your place."

The demon scoffed, a deep snort from his throat. "It was some freak accident that you were able to defeat me the last time. It would take a very powerful demon to kill me now."

"No." I whispered. My body quivered. "It would take a very powerful girl."

The storm was reaching its zenith. I closed my eyes, stopped resisting, and let it flow out.

The wind started immediately. It was like the winds of my Kazaana multiplied by five, screaming and roaring all around me. I saw Kirara get blown out of the sky as my group took shelter in the cave. Tree branches shook and even the trunks themselves were swaying. It was deafening. Naraku had to grind his claws into the ground to keep himself stable. I had one hand on my sword, holding myself down. The winds whipped around me and made me feel more powerful than I ever had.

Naraku looked up and smiled. "Come on, Kaza, impress me. This is nothing."

I frowned. _You asked for it, monkey boy._

I pushed the wind out of my body now. It was still building, still tumbling around inside me. I guess it had always been there – it just took Naraku in the form of a bear demon to make me realize it. The sky slowly darkened to a stormy black, the clouds dark and menacing monsters in the inky sky. I squeezed hard onto my sword and lightning crackled, throwing light onto the clearing for seconds at a time.

The demon ground himself further into the dirt, but I saw the wind beginning to shake his massive form. My hair was picked up and whipped around my head, and as I looked down, I saw that my hands were as pale as the moonlight, and that my bloody yukata looked almost purple in the dim light. The twisting vortex of winds reached hurricane status, spinning and twirling around the clearing, and I realized that Kanna's prediction had come true.

The vision in the mirror that I'd seen not long ago was me. Right now.

_The Daughter of the Wind._

Just as I thought that, the winds screeched, lighting streaked through the sky, and I looked right into the demon's – Naraku's – eyes as the storm reached its climax.

In most stories, now would be the time when the main character would say something very witty and very heroic that would make you want to leap out the window and go rescue someone just reading it. Me, I didn't really consider myself the heroine. I might have been the most powerful girl in all Japan at that moment – hell, maybe the whole world – but I didn't really care. I didn't give a flying shit about revenge, glory or triumph.

I realized that I wanted Naraku dead so I could live in peace. With my mom, my dad, Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippou and Kirara. I was the Daughter of the Wind – but that didn't seem to mean as much to me as having a loving family all together again.

So I didn't give a heroic speech, didn't say anything about revenge or glory.

I just smiled as I looked into Naraku's eyes. The winds careened around me, my hair slapped my face, I felt the trees vibrate with the power, but all I did was smile as I summoned every ounce of power I had and aimed it all at Naraku.

Just as I did that, he opened his mouth to gather up an energy ball. Our opposing forces met in midair, wind against energy, my strength against his, light versus dark, the Daughter of the Wind versus the Master of Darkness, and you know what?

It was a very hard struggle, but I'm the Daughter of the Wind, damn it. And I was NOT about to have summoned all that power just to lose to some wussy energy ball.

I stretched all my muscles to the limit, I screamed with everything I had, I pushed my body and the winds until I was about to explode, and the winds roared forward, lighting struck his body, and in about the amount of time it takes to blink, he was killed.

Naraku was gone for good. I knew this because on the spot where his body was a moment before, there was a large streak of lightning and a patch of burnt grass – just like where my dad had been sucked into the sky. He was gone – really gone.

And somewhere deep down, I knew he wasn't coming back.

Looking over, I saw a little speck of white in the surronding forests. It was Kanna, watching the whole battle with her mirror in her hand. I looked and saw that image of me that had just come true. I could hear her from all the way away as she whispered,

"Do not underestimate her. The Daughter of the Wind."

I grinned, my body finally at peace, the winds calmed down, the sun breaking through the clouds, as I fainted into blackness, feeling like finally, _finally_, my life was worth something.

* * *

**Don't worry, she's not dead. :) Well, sorry it takes so long to update, but my life has taken a crazy turn. I'm just glad I got this one out, cause Kaza kicks hard ass like that. I hope this was satisfying enough for ya'll, and thanks so much for all the awesome reviews for the last chapter. - Please review, Arigatou! **


	19. Saying Sorry

**Oh my God! Two chapters left! AAAH! My baby's all grown up! Yes, there are only two more chapters...Kaza's such a grown up now, I can remember when she was born...oh yeah...cause I wrote it! Don't own Inuyasha. **

Chapter 20 – Saying Sorry

Inuyasha actually let us rest for three days or so, instead of insisting that we move on right away like we usually do. I think he wanted to make sure the demon was really gone before we moved on. I wasn't too sure if that demon really had been Naraku, but it felt like it. I was so tired, but I was finally happy, finally feeling like my life's mission was accomplished. I knew it when I woke up from unconsciousness to see everyone leaning over me.

"Kaza, are you okay?" Shippou whispered, sounding scared.

I kind of nodded. It was all hazy until Kagome splashed water all over my face, making me abruptly sit up and splutter, "Alright, alright, I'm up, dammit!"

"She's fine." Inuyasha said confidently.

"Is he dead?" I said as my dad helped me stand up.

"Seems so. Haven't smelt, heard or felt anything recently. I think you really killed him, Kaza."

I grinned, making Kirara mew. "So what now?"

They all smiled, a soft breeze wound through the trees, and Kagome said,

"We go home."

So we did.

We said good-bye to Kagura and Kouga, packed up and left the hills the next morning. As we left, Kirara on my shoulder and a traveling pack on my back, I turned around to look back at the field. There was a patch of dead grass where Naraku had died, blackened in the morning light rising beyond the hills. I looked up to my little cave set in the hill and saw Kohaku standing at its mouth. He grinned and waved at me, yelling,

"Good-bye, Kaza, and I'll see you later, ane-ue!"

My mom whipped around, her eyes sparkling, as Kohaku vanished into the cave.

"I'll see you later…Kohaku." She whispered.

I walked up and wrapped my arms around her, and without looking back, we walked out of the hills forever.

A week or so later, we came upon the field were my dad had vanished – and been found again, I guess. We all took turns telling him the story of how we'd all faced Naraku, how I got stabbed, and how we even traveled here in the first place. Miroku was grinning and making jokes the whole time, one hand on my mom's waist. When the grope and the slap came – because you know they did – we got moving again. For some reason none of really wanted to linger – we all just wanted to get home. Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippou were at the front, with my mom and Kirara walking next, and somehow I found myself at the back with my dad.

He looked down at me and smiled. "You really were worried about me, weren't you, if you came and rescued me like that."

"I was. I wanted to have a father."

He looked up thoughtfully. "I had a feeling Sango might have been pregnant, but never really thought about it. But the worst feeling in the world was being sucked up into the sky, losing your mother, and not being able to do anything about it. For years, the last thing I saw was Sango screaming my name beneath me. After that, it all went black. I couldn't remember anything for years…you must've been thirteen or so when I finally got my memory back, and I still didn't even know I had a daughter."

I was quiet for a minute. It was a bit saddening to think he didn't even know that I existed, but then I remembered the other set of winds on that day Naraku was first killed, and I said,

"That other set of winds…when Naraku was killed the first time….that was you, huh?"

He nodded. "I had a Kazaana, too, remember? That's where you got it front."

"But how did you know I needed help?"

"Well…" Miroku said slowly, "I didn't exactly know who _you_ specifically where until I got a good look at your eyes. But I knew from the start that you were someone special and that you needed my help because of how much your shoulder was bleeding."

I sighed, and he motioned to my shoulder. "Let me see it."

I was kind of surprised, but I slid down the shoulder of my yukata anyway. The scar was there, slowly healing so that it looked less repulsive. He ran his fingers along it and I suddenly remembered all the pain that had exploded when Naraku's blade pierced my skin.

"I was so stupid!" I burst out suddenly. "So stupid! I wasn't using any common sense, I was just jumping ahead, trying to get him, I wasn't thinking at all. And it happened again with the bear demon! I was just so RETARDED to let him capture me. I should have known better. And now I've got fatass scar on my shoulder forever and you guys had to come and rescue me. I was so stupid. I'm sorry."

Tears came hot and fast to my eyes, and I blinked as I tried to hold them back.

But my dad came up beside me and wiped a hidden tear from my eye. "We all make mistakes, Kaza." He said gently. "It's a part of growing up and learning who you are. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Sure." I grunted. "What's your biggest mistake? It can't be as bad as letting a dumbass bear demon capture you."

"It was much worse." Miroku grinned. "My biggest mistake was falling in love with your mother."

Well, I wasn't expecting that.

And suddenly Naraku's words came back to me from that fight, when our swords were locked and I was so close I stared right into his eyes…_You were an _accident_, Kaza. You weren't _supposed_ to happen at all. Miroku never wanted a daughter, he wanted a son. He doesn't even know you exist – what makes you think he's going to love you if you do find him?_

My whole body went deadly cold and I swear my heartbeat slowed. _What if Naraku was right?_

"I didn't have any business being in love." He continued easily. "I knew I was destined to die because of the Kazaana, so really my only obligation was to get a woman to bear my child so the family mission could continue. Sango had her mission, too, though I guess you don't know – her only goal in life was to kill Naraku and avenge the loss of her family. She came from an entire village of expert demon slayers – Naraku killed them all except her, wiped Kohaku's memory, and made him his servant. She never fully recovered, I think, and all she wanted to do was see Naraku die – preferably by her own hand. So as you can tell, we were the last two people in the world who could have possibly fallen in love."

My throat was frozen. _I knew it…I was a mistake, they didn't mean to have me…_

"And yes, it was a mistake, because during all those years we were gone, I missed your mother so much it felt like my heart would die…and I'm sure she missed me the same way. But you know…" He looked thoughtfully at me with those eyes, my eyes, and said softly,

"If it was a mistake, it was the best mistake I ever made, because otherwise, I wouldn't have you."

"But didn't you want a son?" I said feebly. I sounded so weak I wanted to strangle myself, but I just had to know.

"Originally I wanted a son, yes. But now I've got a daughter, and she seems to have done a hell of a lot more than a son could have done." He grinned at me and walked a little faster. "Most adults couldn't even have done what you did, Kaza, so why would I want anyone else?"

I jogged a little to catch up with his stride and just smiled to myself as all that coldness just melted away.

Inuyasha turned around and shouted, "Hey, we were thinkin', Kaza. So if you're supposed to be the Daughter of the Wind or whatever, then does that mean Sango's the wind or something?"

"Oh, shut up." Kagome said, exasperated. "Daughter of the Wind is a _title. _You just wouldn't get it."

"Try me, wench!" He barked. My mom sniggered.

"He's asking for it." She said nonchalantly.

"SIT!"

Miroku raised an eyebrow. "You're being a bit harsh, don't you think, Kagome?"

"He asked for it." She defended. "He's been very annoying lately. I think he deserved a good sit."

Inuyasha, who had just been getting back to his feet, was thrown back to the ground with the added sit.

"KAGOME, YOU BITCH!"

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean that last one!"

"SHUT UP!"

My mom and Shippou had collapsed in laughter by now, and as Kagome ran over to help Inuyasha up, I glanced at my dad, who was laughing silently, and I, grinning, went over to help too.

After all, he really didn't deserve that last sit, and we all make mistakes.

**

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I can't believe how close we are to finishing...seriously, I reread the first couple of chapters and then I look at how I wrote this one, and it's amazing how much it's progressed...both in Kaza's development as a character and my writing as well. Anyway, sorry for the wait, but please review and I'll put up the last chapter as soon as I finish it! And I can promise you it'll be good...:) Arigatou!**


	20. Four Seasons

**The final chapter! Aggh! Wow! Alright, ladies and gentlemen, and so we finish the story of our beloved Kaza...God, I wish I owned Inuyasha, but, alas. I do not. Whatever. READ!**

Chapter 21 – Four Seasons

One month later, we finally saw Inuyasha and Kagome's little village, nestled deep in a valley. It was the most welcome sight in the world. I'd been on the move for three months now, and all I wanted to do was sleep in a warm bed, in a real house, not on the ground with Inuyasha snoring and rustling in the trees, Shippou sleep-talking, my dad rubbing my mom's ass in the middle of the night, and twigs poking into my shoulder and pissing me off. I hadn't properly washed my hair in…god, I don't even know how long. I could tell everyone else was just as happy when I saw everyone just sort of beam at that little village. We were all ready to settle down.

Inuyasha and Kagome's little hut was still there, and we immediately began work on another hut, right next to it. Shippou decided not to go back to the forest and he lived in the hut with Inuyasha and Kagome (Inuyasha was not too happy about this), and my mom, my dad, Kirara and I lived in the other. I'd never been happier. I saw everyone every day, but I could still get some quiet time if I wanted.

Don't get me wrong. It wasn't like we didn't do anything. None of us could cope with complete inactivity. We still traveled a lot, working as on-the-go demon slayers. Sometimes, Inuyasha would randomly decided we were going on a trip, and all of us would pack up and head off for a couple of days to wherever the hell he decided, and then we got the twig-poking and midnight-ass-rubbing experience all over again. When we actually stayed in the village, Kagome worked as a priestess to keep busy, and Inuyasha was teaching Shippou how to really fight (cause he sure as hell needed it). My dad was a monk, and my mom and I were still Taijiyas, so we were never out of money or a job. And all of us were helping to collaborate on a detailed history of the demon slayers, so we could actually get it down on paper. It was in a sense our history, too, and I felt a pang when she wrote about Kohaku and the fight. It was nice to know what actually happened, though.

Not too long after we settled in we finally had the wedding. It was on a warm day in early autumn, before the cold set in. I knew this because at one point I had to sprint out of my mom's hut, trying not to scream. God! My mom was such a friggin' valley girl! I mean, she was getting married, sure, but she had a teenage daughter, too, and she didn't need to be squealing every five seconds! It didn't help that Kagome and Kirara were just as hyper and just as annoying. Of course I was so happy for my parents, but I needed a bit of quiet time too.

I sat down on the grass, and then swore in my head. My mom would probably yell at me now for getting grass stains on my new yukata, but whatever. I fingered the rich silk sleeves. It was a soft coral color, with little cherry blossoms in red embroidered on it. It was so new I swore I could have smelled the silk worms. We'd all gotten new clothes for the wedding. I smiled as I thought that I almost missed my old, bloody, torn, disgusting yukata. I still had it, buried in one of my old chests. There was no way I could have lived without that thing.

I stood up and walked over to the other hut where the boys were getting ready. I was only halfway there when I first heard the screaming.

"Inuyasha, put on the damn kimono!"

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!"

"Put it on, Inuyasha!"

"Why the hell should I?"

"Because your old one is disgusting."

"AND?"

"PUT ON THE DAMN KIMONO!"

"Hi guys." I said, easily stepping in. My father was already wearing his traditional Shinto wedding garments – the long, black overshirt over the striped black and gray hakamas and white undershirt, and he was holding a white fan in one hand. I was shocked to see him out of the monk's outfit, because it was the only thing I'd ever seen him wear. Miroku looked very…regal in the wedding outfit. Shippou had changed, too, wearing a clean blue kimono that didn't look half bad on him. I think he was trying to act very grown-up at my mom's wedding, because I could tell that it was a bit too big for him.

And the only one I was NOT shocked to see was Inuyasha – not wearing the traditional kimono we'd picked out for him to wear.

"Why won't you wear it, Inuyasha? It's red." I protested.

"What's wrong with my old one?" He grunted, crossing his arms. "I just don't like it." We glared at each other – he was very stubborn when he wanted to be.

But I had my secret weapon.

"KAAAA-GOOO-MEEEEE!" I screeched. His face dropped like a rock.

"Yes, dear?" Her voice wafted back.

"INUYASHA WON'T PUT ON THE KIMONO!"

My dad was smiling triumphantly and Shippou was grinning evilly. Inuyasha's mouth dropped.

"I hate you, Kaza." He whispered.

I just arched an eyebrow and smiled as Kagome's voice shot back – "SIT, BOY!"

As he was thrown to the floor, I said loudly, "I can have her do that as much as you want, dog boy!"

"Alright already! DAMN YOU, Kaza!" He swore, as Shippou cackled and pulled out the kimono.

"Thanks, Kaza." My dad said, turning to me. "That yukata looks beautiful on you. I'm not used to seeing you out of that old disgusting one."

"I liked my old yukata!" I protested. "But anyway, I'm not used to seeing you out of the monk's outfit."

"Fair enough. How's your mother?"

"Acting like a teenager, and so's Kagome, but they're doing great. She looks amazing in that kimono – I guess I should go help them finish up."

"Sure. Just call us when you're ready."

My mom's voice came across the clearing a moment later – "Kaza! Come here, you have to put on your obi!"

"Damn." I swore. "I hate the obi."

My father smiled. "You'll look gorgeous in whatever you wear. Go."

I was smiling the whole way back to the hut. He'd called me gorgeous. It sent little tingles down my spine even as Kagome and my mom tied up the obi around my waist. I hate the obi – it's too restricting, and I've always preferred to wear my yukata without it. But for this…I think I could handle it.

We weren't exactly very rich – being Taijiyas was enough to make a living, but it wasn't exactly a lucrative business. So my parents weren't going to have the elaborate and traditional Japanese wedding ceremony most couples had – anyway, since the couple was in their thirties and already had a teenage daughter it'd be a disgrace to get married in public. But we were determined not to skimp my mother out on the beautiful _Uchikake_ wedding kimono, so it was with a lot of days going hungry and no luxuries for a while that my mother was able to step out of the hut in that gorgeous kimono.

It was layer after layer of pure white silk that sharply contrasted her dark, dark hair and eyes, and the outer layer was richly embroidered in silver and dropped all the way to the floor. It took both Kagome and I for her to be able to even walk in it. Her face was powdered white, her lips were blood-red, and she was wearing the traditional white headdress. I don't think any of us were used to seeing her looking this elegant, this radiant. Her face was beaming as Miroku came up and took her arm, and we all walked up to the tiny temple together. Kagome was wearing a black Tomosode kimono that she managed to unearth from god-knows-where. It would have been just as expensive as my mom's, because Tomosode kimonos where only worn on a close friend or relatives' wedding. Black looked good on her, though, and she was wearing a red obi that matched Inuyasha's bright red kimono. Throw in me in pink, Shippou in blue and cream-colored Kirara, and we were just like a rainbow when we all got to the temple.

It was a short ceremony – thank God. I think everyone's favorite part was when we all passed around sake to symbolize my mom and dad's union now. Kagome acted as the go-between and priestess, and by the time they had placed the twigs of Sakaki on the altar as tribute to the gods, we all just wanted to it to be over and done with.

And then it was done – Kagome said the final words, and my parents gazed right at each other.

"I love you." They said in unison, and then promptly made out.

Not many people would make out at their wedding, but then again, we're talking about my parents here.

So what happened next? Let's briefly recap –

Inuyasha got very drunk off sake, I ditched to the bathroom as soon as I possibly could to change into my old yukata (much to the dismay of my mother), Shippou and Kirara played tag and knocked over all the rice balls and sake, and my parent's wedding speech consisted of a, 'Thank you guys so much,' and then another make-out session.

But the biggest surprise was yet to come. It was late in the evening, and we were all in the huts again. We were all calm – Shippou and Kirara were asleep in the corner, my parents were holding hands, and Kagome stood up and cleared her throat. I knew something was up immediately when she was smiling like I'd never seen her before.

"Everyone…well, I think since today is probably the best day of Miroku and Sango's lives, I've got an announcement too…"

That's when I realized what she was going to say – _WHOA, SHIT!_

"I'm pregnant." She whispered.

Inuyasha leapt to his feet, clattering over a table in his haste. His eyes were huge, and he placed his hands on Kagome's shoulders, looking right into her eyes.

"Are you sure?" He said softly. "Remember what happened with the last babies? I don't want you to get hurt again, Kagome. I couldn't bear it."

The rest of us were still kind of reeling from the shock. Shippou and Kirara were fully awake by now, and my mom had kind of a glazed look in her eyes.

But Kagome just said confidently, "This one's going to be different, Inuyasha, I can feel it. This baby's going to be the one – trust me."

So we did. And by God, was that a crazy nine months.

One day Kagome and Inuyasha would fight like crazy, screaming and yelling, and then the next day I'd walk in to borrow some rice and see them snuggled up, his hands on her expanding stomach. I felt so bad that she'd had so many miscarriages, because you could just tell she loved being pregnant – her face was glowing, and her eyes were sparkling every day. (This is ignoring the morning sickness and the days when she was grumpy.) So when the ninth month came around, all of us, down to Kirara, were just hoping and praying that this one would be the one – for Inuyasha's sake as much as hers.

* * *

I have seen demons with their eyes gorged out, their stomachs clawed out, their bodies torn to pieces by lions, hearts pierced by swords, ripped in two by wind, and with their bodies blown up by lightning. I thought those were bad. 

Then Kagome had a baby, and I found out how wrong I was.

"PUSH, KAGOME!" My mom shrieked. Normally now would be the time when I would add wryly, _Ya might wanna try a little louder, Mama,_ but now was probably not the time. Kagome's body was trembling with the contractions as blood spilled out. She wasn't really screaming yet, but her face was turning steadily purple, so I figured it would be coming soon enough.

My mom and I were poised between her legs, and my dad was saying prayers over her. Shippou and Kirara were running back and forth with water, and Inuyasha was the one holding her hands and looking in her eyes.

"Come on, Kagome, look at me, right at me, that's it." He murmured as tears started to leak out of her eyes. She hadn't said a word since she'd gone into labor and it was starting to worry me. "You can do it, girl, come on, stay with me."

My mom tsked as she gazed between Kagome's legs. "Not good." She whispered to me, so Kagome wouldn't hear. "There's nothing here. I know there's a baby, but it sure isn't coming out."

"How come you're so…brave about this?" I whispered back. All the blood was starting to freak me out. "It's really scary."

"Because Kagome did this exact thing for me when you were born." Sango said softly. "I owe her one."

Suddenly Kagome began screaming at the top of her lungs. "IT'S NOT COMING, IT'S NOT COMING, INUYASHA! THIS ISN'T THE ONE, IT ISN'T! I'M GOING TO LOSE ANOTHER BABY!" She was really crying now, and curled up in a little ball.

"NO YOU'RE NOT!" Inuyasha bellowed back, grabbing her hands and pulling her out. It almost seemed like one of their fights, so I was almost laughing. "YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE THIS BABY! COME ON, WENCH, I KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO THIS!" (Only Inuyasha would call his wife a wench when she's giving birth.)

But it worked.

"Oh my God, it's a head." My mom gasped. "Kagome, it's coming! Come on, girl, PUSH IT!"

Her face scrunched up as she screamed, her hands squeezed tightly onto Inuyasha's. My dad mopped off her face as my mom yelled at me to get a towel and some hot water ready. The contractions were coming hot and fast, and Kagome was screaming bloody murder. Inuyasha's face was as pale as snow, but he was still holding her hands, still holding her. My dad was murmuring prayers non-stop and my mom was completely in the zone and I was really rushed, trying to heat the water, and Shippou's teeth were chattering nervously, and Kirara was mewing like crazy, and Kagome was still screaming and it was all just happening so fast…

And then it all slowed down as I got to my knees and saw that bright red baby drop straight into my mother's hands.

The most perfect little baby in the world.

My mom passed it to me, and without really thinking, I bundled it up in a towel and then rushed it over to dip it in some warm water. I heard everyone sigh in unison behind me as I bundled it up. The baby started to cry as I cleaned the crap out of its mouth, and that's when I looked down and realized –

"K-Kagome…" I said shakily, "It-it's a g-girl."

Quite frankly, my dad cracked up, and Shippou grinned. Kagome gasped.

And as I wiped the slime off her little head, I saw that she had a shock of black hair, just like Kagome, and barely protruding were two little black dog ears.

"Oh. My. God." I whispered, picking her up. "I can't believe this."

"What!" They all screamed. I turned around and raised her up, laughing.

"See for yourself!"

The responses differed from laughter to gasps to outright, 'What the hell?' (That was my mom.)

"She's a quarter demon." Kagome whispered, sitting up. Inuyasha was crying as he got up and took his little baby girl from me – actually crying, silent tears coming from his big amber eyes. (I would blackmail him with this later.) He rocked her, his clawed fingers touching her little ears, and then he brought her over to Kagome and whispered,

"It's our daughter, Kagome. She looks just like you."

Kagome looked so serene as she took her baby, then chuckled and said, "I think she got the ears from her daddy."

From there the mood in the room died down. We all had to wash our hands and clean the hut – it was my hut, so I wanted to be able to sleep without blood all over the floor – as Inuyasha and Kagome played with their new baby. She had big brown eyes like Kagome. Finally I asked,

"Hey, what's her name?"

They stared at each other and Inuyasha said, "I like Kaida."

"Little dragon." Kagome whispered. "I like it, too. Kaida – it suits her. She sure came out like a little dragon."

We all laughed, secretly thankful that Kaida had been the one. The baby turned to me and stared right at me with her big brown eyes, and again I thought, _She's the most perfect baby in the world. _

In the middle of the night, I was lying awake in my hut when I heard a thin, high crying coming from Inuyasha and Kagome's hut. Kaida. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Kagome shouldn't have to get up and feed her in the middle of the night – she'd been through enough today. So I wrapped a shawl around my shoulders, tiptoed past my parents cuddled up with Kirara in between them, and slipped in through the back door (which Inuyasha never closes). The proud parents were completely knocked out after the long day, and Shippou was curled in a little ball and looking perfectly serene. Kaida was lying in her crib, crying her little lungs out, and before they could wake up, I picked her up and slipped back outside.

At first I was worried she wouldn't settle down because I wasn't her mother, but Kaida wasn't like that. As soon as we got outside and she breathed in the crisp air, she quieted down, those amazing brown eyes looking up at me. I held her close to me, whispering little nonsense words, and sat down in the grass.

The sky that night was beautiful – there weren't many stars, but you don't need stars to have a perfect night. The few stars that were out twinkled and shined like tiny diamonds in a soft, black, velvet cloak. The air was sharp and crisp, and as I plopped down something occurred to me.

It'd been a full year ever since I'd first set out to find my father. We'd spent three months traveling, and another nine months here in the village – twelve months, four seasons. I hadn't even realized it, but now that I thought about it, in a month or two my sixteenth birthday would be coming around. Wow. It hadn't even seemed that long.

Kaida started fussing again, her breathing a bit irregular, and I opened her little mouth and cleaned out the thick goop with the sleeve of my yukata. She'd been like that all day – I figured she'd get over it sooner or later, but I was really worried about her in the meantime. I sighed and wiped my yukata on the grass – and then suddenly caught myself.

For the first time I realized that I'd helped deliver a baby this morning. A year ago, when I'd first set out, I couldn't even save myself. I remembered Inuyasha telling my mom when we were in the forest – _Your daughter is a seriously pathetic fighter – she can't even defend herself. _Kaida pulled at my yukata sleeve, and I reached up and felt the bumpy scar underneath the cotton. My mistakes, my idiocy – I let myself get stabbed, and even get captured when I should have known better.

And then I grinned when I remembered that I was the girl who killed Naraku – _twice!_ I was the one who rid Japan of a demon who'd made all our lives a living hell – who'd cursed us all, who'd killed us all inside where it really mattered. He was the reason I had an uncle I never knew I had, he was the reason Kagura wanted so badly to be free – he was the reason I had the damn Kazaana in the first place! And I was the one who killed him. Me. Kaza. A little village girl from rural Japan with a single mother and a pet cat, who's only hobby was sucking farms into the cursed wind tunnel in her hand. (Pretty ghetto, huh?)

Kaida wiggled her little demon ears, and I tweaked them with a giggle. Of course. The girl's only 25 percent demon and of course the part of Inuyasha that gets passed on is the ears. She looked so much like her mom, though, it was almost disturbing.

Inuyasha. Kagome. Shippou. Kirara. My mom, Sango, and my dad, Miroku. We were all brought together through this all – in this year I'd found them all. Saving my father was just the first step – I think we all finally came to know ourselves, and that we're stronger when we're together than by ourselves. I mean, I didn't defeat Naraku on my own (as much as I'd like to say I did). Everyone helped me – right down to Kouga, Kagura and Kohaku. Even Kanna – she was the one who helped me to realize who I really am – and I'm not the Daughter of the Wind.

Just Kaza.

Just a little village girl, with a young, wonderful demon slayer for a mom, and a disturbed, flirtacious monk for a dad. I have a crazy, half-demon uncle Inuyasha, a sweet, loveable aunt Kagome, my equally crazy little brother Shippou, my brand new baby sister Kaida – and the most perfect life in the world.

As I sat there, with little baby Kaida in my arms, a soft wind wound through the field, and that's when I decided that maybe there are such things as happy endings.

**Xx The End xX

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**Oh my God, it's done!**

**I honestly can't believe it either – this story is 95 pages and about the same number of reviews! I think none of us really thought the story would be this long, or that I'd get so many reviews – I didn't know people liked the story that much! Well, this chapter was a bit drawn out and/or cheesy, but hey. Let's bear with Kaza as she has her little moment of glory with the baby. I think she deserves it after all the crap I've put her through.**

**So as a final note, thank you all so much for the reviews and support through this story, and please press that pretty blue-purple button one last time and tell me what you think! Arigatou! SANGOXMIROKU FOREVER! – Pegelia VonBorrador**


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